Mob kingpin battles extradition
Sending him to Italy would violate Charter, lawyers argue
Sentenced by Palermo court to 21 years for Mafia association

DALE ANNE FREED
Toronto Star

Lawyers for convicted international Mafia kingpin Alfonso Caruana
are challenging an extradition request from the Italian government 
because they say it would violate his Canadian Charter rights. 

The Sicilian-born Caruana, 58, a Canadian citizen, was sentenced 
in absentia on July 30, 1997 by the Palermo court of appeal to 21 
years and 10 months for Mafia association, conspiracy to traffic 
narcotics and aggravated importing, possession and sale of large 
quantities of narcotics, according to court documents. He was also 
ordered to pay a fine of 180 million lire (about $144,000 Canadian). 

The crimes were alleged to have been committed between 1977
and 1986. 

Caruana was represented by a court-appointed lawyer at trial and his 
conviction was appealed, crown attorney Robin Parker told court on
the first day of the extradition hearing. The crown has argued that
an abuse of process wasn't committed, that Caruana's two appeals
have been exhausted and Caruana should be extradited to Italy to
serve his sentence. 

Caruana, who was alleged to be a member of the Cosa Nostra
organization by some of its members at his Italian trial, was also
"deemed by the (Italian) judges to be a front-line participant in
managing a colossal heroin traffic, the drug being produced in
clandestine Sicilian laboratories and transported to the United States," 
according to a document from the office of the state attorney general. 

On July 15, 1998, a year after his conviction in absentia in Italy,
the Woodbridge resident was arrested in Canada under Project Omerta, 

an RCMP-led probe, and convicted of conspiracy to import and traffic 

cocaine by a Canadian court on Feb. 25, 2000. 

Caruana pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import and traffic 

some 1,500 kilograms of cocaine. 

Mr. Justice David Watt, the same judge now presiding at his extradition

hearing, sentenced Caruana to 18 years in jail. He was held at 

Fenbrook Institution in Gravenhurst. 

But on April 11, 2003, just before he became eligible for release

to a halfway house on accelerated day parole, Caruana was arrested at

Fenbrook by RCMP officers acting on a provisional arrest warrant issued

by the Italian authorities. 

In May 2003, Italy requested his extradition. 

Caruana's lawyer, Joseph Neuberger, argued for a stay in proceedings, 

calling the extradition request "oppressive and unfair" and counter 

to the fundamental principles of Canadian justice. 

Extraditing him would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and 

Freedoms, he said. 

Even though the Italian government knew Caruana was in Canada, they

failed to notify him of the proceedings in a timely fashion. 

Neuberger argued that there are insufficient grounds to extradite

Caruana because there is no evidence that Caruana either received 

notice for those charges, nor is there any evidence that he received 

formal notice that a trial was to begin in Palermo; that he was never 

given an opportunity to properly defend himself or retain a lawyer, and 

that his trial relied on the evidence of four mob informants, 

one of whom is now dead.

Oct. 13, 2004