2007 april
8 charged in Ottawa cocaine ring bust
Ottawa-based drug trafficking ring that moved dozens of kilograms of cocaine a month has been busted and the alleged ringleader has been arrested, police say.

"We can guesstimate, but it is believed that the organization in a month would [distribute] between 30 kilograms of cocaine and 50 kilograms of cocaine," Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Pierre Gauthier told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, following police raids at four Montreal properties on Monday.

Those and January raids at eight Ottawa-area sites led to the arrest of 18 people, including Giuseppe Battista, 38, who was based in Ottawa's Barrhaven neighbourhood and headed the ring, police allege.

Police found $55,000 in cash in Battista's home.

"The Battista organization is a large organization that has been going for years," Gauthier said.

Police said it was based in Ottawa, but had links with Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Police said the ring was broken by an undercover operation dubbed "Project Bulldawg" that combined the efforts of the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and the police services in Ottawa and Montreal.

During the 16-month operation, police seized $1.2 million in assets such as cash, cars and real estate; six handguns, a Taser (stun gun); and a variety of drugs that they say had a wholesale value of $985,330 and a potential street value of more than $3.3 million, including more than:

22 kilograms of cocaine.(]
12 kilograms of ecstasy.
729 grams and 176 plants of marijuana.
97 pills of Viagra.
73 pills of anabolic steroids.
Police arrested eight people during the Jaunary raids and another 10 people since then.

Battista has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and more than a dozen other counts.( since dropped)

He and the other suspects together face 138 drug, weapons and criminal activity charges.


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Judge throws out evidence in drug case, blasts police
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Jul 7, 2011 – 7:57 AM ET

By Andrew Seymour

OTTAWA — Bricks of cocaine and four handguns were tossed out as evidence against four men accused of running a massive drug ring after a judge blasted two detectives for searching a suburban Ottawa house illegally because they found a door unlocked.

The behaviour of the officers — detectives Kevin Jacobs and Doug Edgar — would “shock the conscience of the community,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett found in a written ruling released last week.

“I find the public would be horrified to learn that there are police officers who believe that they can enter homes to look for criminal activity for no better reason than they have forgotten to lock a door,” Judge Parfett said.

“A private residence is sacrosanct. It is trite law that ‘a man’s home is his castle’ and that residents are free from state interference when they are in their homes.”

The two detectives found 12 kilograms of cocaine, four handguns and ammunition and $90000 in cash during the June 17, 2006, search of the Kanata residence of the brother-in-law of Cory Farrell, one of the men charged in connection with the drug ring.

The officers were at the home to serve a summons under the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act after Constable Jacobs had stopped Mr. Farrell a day earlier for driving while suspended and without proof of insurance.

Const. Jacobs said he saw through window blinds that the house appeared vacant, but the back door was unlocked. A neighbour had told him the resident had moved out two weeks earlier, and Const. Jacobs said he was concerned about the house being unsecured.

Const. Jacobs testified he and Constable Edgar decided to check for evidence of a break-and-enter or squatters. They found neither. Instead, Judge Parfett said Const. Jacobs found what he was looking for — a motherlode of drugs consisting of two bricks of cocaine on the floor of a closet, wrappings from other bricks of cocaine in a large box in the hallway and more cocaine and handguns in two bags on a closet shelf.

Judge Parfett said the officers’ legitimate purpose for being at the house ended once they determined Mr. Farrell’s brother-in-law no longer lived there.

The search amounted to an abuse of process, Judge Parfett said, and excluded the evidence.

The evidence seized was used as part of Project Bulldawg, a 16-month undercover operation targeting a drug distribution network that police said had ties with the Hells Angels and the Montreal Mafia.

Giuseppe Battista, Duane Hurdis, James Kongkhaw and Farrell have pleaded not guilty to 35 charges, including conspiracy to traffic drugs, association with a criminal organization, weapons offences, drug trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime.

Judge Parfett recognized her decision would likely lead to the dismissal of some charges against the men, although defence lawyers have conceded convictions will likely be registered against their clients on at least some of the remaining charges.

Mr. Battista, the alleged ringleader, has had charges of conspiracy to commit murder dismissed following a preliminary hearing. He and another man, Joey Peloso, were found guilty of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime.

Judge Parfett is expected to deliver her verdict this summer. en of story

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Giuseppe Battista Known as "Joey B" on the streets is a soldier in the Ottawa Ndrangeta cell( whose leader Nino Coco is a member of the Camera Di Controllo which represents all 10 Ndrina clans in ontario) with close ties to Montreal And eastern ontario Hells Angels Elite Nomad Chapter bigwig Paul "Sasquatch" Porter who ( Who is no lghtweight flunky read up on him very interestin story of his life survived 5 or so assassination attempts during the Quebec biker war as A Rock Machine Member Then Became a Bandido as all rock n-machine did after most were murdered by the Hells Then Led a Mas defection to the hells angels and was put in charge of eastern ontario and western QC and given Nomadic statatus meaning he could do business in any hells territory(or other terr. because no one would challenge him) without objection he is 6`8 600 pds imagine dodging 5 assassination attempts with bullets at that size of course he respects mafia teritory but he is the most powerful Hells angel thats not in jail or under house arrest and that says alot about his cunnig ways of operating
an OC enterprise> )