FORMER CUSTOMS AGENTS HEAD FOR COURT

Accused Of Aiding Mafia Couriers; Two Face Charges Including
Corruption, Bribery In Alleged Plot To Import Cocaine

Two former Customs agents accused of helping the Montreal Mafia
smuggle cocaine through Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
begin their trial with three co-accused today.

Nancy Cedeno, 34, of Laval, is alleged to have supplied pre-approved
Customs forms to drug traffickers so they could arrange to have their
couriers go through the airport with luggage packed with cocaine
without being searched.

Among other counts, Cedeno is charged with accepting bribes while she
worked for the Canada Border Services Agency.

Omar Riahi, 33, of St. Leonard, is alleged to have recruited Cedeno on
behalf of drug traffickers who smuggled drugs through the airport with
the Mafia's support.

Among the eight charges he faces are two related to his alleged
corruption of Cedeno.

Riahi worked for the Canada Border Services Agency in 2004 and is
described in court documents as being a military police officer when
he emerged as a suspect in Project Colisee, a joint police
investigation into the Mafia's leaders and associates.

Jean Marie Fritz Balmir, 38, of Montreal, Julie Chateauneuf Fleury,
27, of Anjou and Jean Michel Reacarld, 41, of Montreal are accused of
acting as couriers for the drug traffickers. The three are also part
of the trial at the Montreal courthouse before Quebec Court Judge
Claude Millette.

All five are charged with taking part in a general plot to import
cocaine into Canada. Such Mafia leaders as Francesco Arcadi and
Francesco Del Balso are named as non-indicted co-conspirators in the
charge.

Both men are serving 15-year prison terms they received after pleading
guilty last year to charges filed in Project Colisee.

Ivan Enrique Bayter, 44, of Vaughn, Ont., was supposed to be part of
the same trial but pleaded guilty May 4 to conspiracy and a charge of
participating in a criminal organization.

Sentencing in his case is scheduled to take place in September.