MAFIA, BIKERS IN RIFT OVER PRICES: INFORMANT

Drugs More Expensive In Quebec Because Bikers Impose Price, Guede
Trial Told

The high street price the bikers imposed on illegal narcotics in
Montreal became the sticking point in negotiations between the Mafia
and a Colombian drug supplier to import 100 kilos of cocaine to Canada.

Bogota-based Abraham Nasser and his associates in Montreal wanted to
collect 20 per cent on the transport of the shipment and to base that
cut on the Quebec price of cocaine.

The Toronto-based confidante of alleged Mafia god-father Vito Rizzuto
was reluctant to agree to a pre-determined rate on the
ever-fluctuating street value of the potent white powder.

Ramon Fernandez also complained that coke had a higher street price in
Montreal.

An informant testifying for the fourth straight day at the drug
conspiracy trial of Montreal criminal lawyer Jose Guede explained why:
"Here in Quebec, it's more expensive because the bikers impose the
price. In Toronto, it's not like that, because no one's imposing a
price on anyone."

The informant, who cannot be named, ran drugs and cash across borders
for Nasser, otherwise known as the Turk.

But his prominence grew when Guede, his longtime friend and lawyer,
introduced him to Fernandez, Rizzuto's right-hand man from Toronto.
The informant became a go-between for the two camps, hammering out the
elaborate details of the scheme - all the while wearing a wire and
taking copious notes for the RCMP.

The parties had worked out how to lend their enterprise an air of
legitimacy, setting up a fruit company that would import mangoes from
Venezuela.

As the weeks of early 2002 dragged on, the issue that remained
unresolved was the 20-per-cent transport fee.

But just as everything was falling into place, tension mounted as a
number of drug shipments were seized, money was lost and contacts were
arrested. The Turk was "traumatized," the informant testified, because
he'd lost three shipments in a row to Steve (Bull) Bertrand, a friend
of Hells Angels kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher.

Bertrand had run off to Cuba, the informant added, and when he
returned, someone made an attempt on his life as he ate in a Park Ave.
sushi shop.

The informant asked Rodolfo Rojas, another of the Turk's associates in
Montreal, if the Colombian had ordered a hit. The answer was no, but
Rojas said the deal with Fernandez was taking on new importance. Then
the Turk had to go underground.

"The Turk was hiding because one of his good friends, the chief of
police of Bogota, told him the RCMP, had come there to investigate
him," the informant said.

At that point, Fernandez began to get suspicious of his new business
associates.

"He said Rudy (Rojas) was playing games," the informant said. "He said
the stock didn't really fall in Halifax. But I said Rudy had the proof
from the newspaper."

In the drug underworld, proof in the form of a media report that a
shipment of drugs was seized by police, not stolen, meant the
receivers didn't have to pay the supplier.

The trial continues today.