WANT TO IMPORT DRUGS INTO MONTREAL? OPEN A FRUIT STORE

Lawyer Charged In Smuggling Conspiracy; Details Of Plan Caught On Tape In
St. Laurent Social Club By Informant Wearing A Wire

They needed to set up a company to lend legitimacy to their plan to import
drugs from Colombia and sell them in Montreal.

At Gallego, a Spanish social club on St. Laurent Blvd., the parties in on
the transaction had a meeting on Dec. 11, 2001.

Rodolfo Rojas, the main contact in Montreal of a Colombian drug supplier
named Abraham Nasser, insisted they establish a fruit company instead of a
textile company as first proposed.

Also attending the meeting was Ramon Fernandez, a Toronto drug distributor
and a close confidante of reputed Montreal mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto.

Nasser - aka the Turk - was looking for new outlets for his merchandise in
Montreal after $2 million worth of drugs were seized from usual distributor
Steve (Bull) Bertrand.

Fernandez and the Turk - via Rojas - were doing business for the very first
time.

They'd been brought together by two men who were also sitting at the table:
a trusty Montreal drug runner who carried narcotics and cash for the Turk;
and criminal lawyer Jose Guede.

The informant and Guede were longtime friends.

Guede knew Rizzuto - working in the same law office as his children and
playing cards with him from time to time.

Guede had earlier told the informant to bring as much as he wanted back
from Colombia - his "contacts" would help unload it.

Unbeknown to the others, the drug runner was secretly recording the
discussion at Gallego.

He had turned informant for the RCMP some months before.

That conversation was played yesterday at the trial of Guede, who faces
three counts of conspiracy to import drugs.

On the stand for the third straight day, the informant - who cannot be
named - explained why they needed a business.

One fruit company would be registered in Toronto, he said, and another in
Venezuela or Paraguay so that the arrival of drug-laden shipping containers
would look legal.

"If the first container arrives, sure the customs guy will check," the
informant told Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Dumais. "But if the
containers go through all the time, after a couple of months they'll still
check, but not as much. If we imported fruit 10 times, on the 11th time you
put in coke and the chances of them checking would be much less."

The rest of December, the informant had almost daily meetings with Rojas,
Fernandez or Guede, with Nasser undecided about whether to set up a
textile, fruit or fish importing company.

Finally, a decision was made and the informant relayed the news to
Fernandez on Dec. 30.

"OK man, good news. Our friend says it's a fruit store. ... Yeah. He has
mangos to sell and everything," he said in a phone conversation played for
the court.

"Beautiful!" was the reply.

The informant told Fernandez they now needed a name and some letterhead
with a logo.

Meanwhile, he set up a fax line at his home that he told the others was at
his wife's work.

"So they wouldn't think I was working for the police."

The trial continues today.