OTTAWA SEEKS TO SEIZE LAND FROM KINGPIN

Cocaine trafficker faces jail in Italy after co-operating

The federal government says it wants to seize 405,000 hectares of land in
Venezuela that belongs to a drug kingpin who confessed to his crimes in a
Toronto court yesterday.

The spread near the town of Carapo is owned by Oreste Pagano, who was a
major player in the international drug smuggling ring allegedly headed up
by a 52-year-old Woodbridge man.

Under tight security in a University Ave. courtroom, Pagano pleaded guilty
to one count each of importing and trafficking in cocaine, and was
sentenced to a day in jail.

The 62-year-old father of five has been in custody since his arrest last
year, and federal Crown Attorney Beverley Wilton told a court hearing the
token sentence comes after Pagano agreed to co-operate with the authorities
in the prosecution of others in what's reputed to be one of the biggest
smuggling rings in the world.

Immediately after he was sentenced, federal Crown Attorney Fergus ODonnell
submitted a motion to Mr. Justice Hugh Locke stating the attorney-general
of Canada has started proceedings on what was described in a brief as "the
property."

Pagano admitted to police he bought the land, in the state of Bolivar, from
the proceeds of his drug smuggling, the brief stated.

The federal government can seize the property under its proceeds of crime
legislation.

After he was sentenced, Pagano was whisked out of court under the
protection of at least half a dozen police officers, some wearing
bullet-proof vests.

He will soon be headed back to his native Italy where he faces 28 years in
jail after he was sentenced in absentia for drug smuggling offences.

Wilton told the court Pagano acted as a broker, helping arrange cocaine
shipments from Colombia, through Venezuela, and into Canada, where others
in the ring, allegedly headed up by Alfonso Caruana, distributed the
illicit narcotic.

Caruana and 13 others were arrested in July, 1998, after an undercover
operation headed in this country by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They
are now on trial on charges of conspiracy to import and traffic in cocaine.
They appear in court again on Dec. 21.

In lengthy interviews with authorities, Pagano laid out how the operation
worked, Wilton told court.

Pagano's decision to co-operate "was done with great risk to himself and
his family," Wilton told the Superior Court of Justice hearing.