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Richard Matticks is a member of the West End Gang.
With a high-profile trial involving Jimmy Cournoyer set to begin in New York in two months, the lawyers involved have been filing several exchanges in a U.S. District Court based in Brooklyn. As part of those filings, the prosecution recently produced a long list of people alleged to be “co-conspirators” in the case against Cournoyer.
According to a summary of the case filed in court, Cournoyer, 33, allegedly “co-ordinated the importation and distribution of more than 100,000 pounds of hydroponic marijuana into the United States, specifically to Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, N.Y., from Canada” between 2002 and 2011. The marijuana is thought to have originated from Montreal and by 2009, “Cournoyer was sending at least 1,000 pounds of marijuana to New York per week, and was planning to expand his business to 5,000 pounds of marijuana per week.”
In a letter filed to the court recently, United States Attorney Loretta Lynch wrote that “the government anticipates that evidence may be introduced at trial implicating dozens of individuals as co-conspirators of the Cournoyer enterprise.”
The letter does not explain how the list of more than 400 names was generated or how the people on it may be tied to Cournoyer.
It is possibly based on a list of contacts Cournoyer kept on communication devices seized in the investigation. Earlier this year, the prosecution revealed reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto’s telephone number was among those saved on a telephone seized from Cournoyer.
Rizzuto’s name appears on the list made public in U.S. court, as do several other major figures from Montreal’s underworld. At least three other people on the list are believed to have ties to the Mafia in Montreal, including Andrew (Andrea) Scoppa, 49, whose name was apparently misspelled among Cournoyer’s contacts as “Andrew Scopa.” Scoppa, who has been linked to the Rizzuto organization in the past, was sentenced to a six-year prison term in 2004 for drug trafficking in Montreal.
The prosecution also stated last week that during the trial it intends to call a detective with the New York Police Department who will testify “regarding the historical development of Italian organized crime in the United States and Canada” and about the Bonanno crime family in particular. Ties between the Bonanno family and the Mafia in Montreal have existed for decades. And one person with alleged ties to the Bonannos, John Venizelos, has been charged with acting as Cournoyer’s distributor in New York.
The list of Cournoyer’s potential contacts also suggests he knew some of the more influential figures within the Montreal-based West End Gang, including Gerald (Gerry) Matticks, 72, his brother Richard, 79, and his son Donald, 49. Both Gerry and Donald Matticks have served lengthy prison terms for helping the Hells Angels smuggle cocaine through the Port of Montreal.
Another name on the list made public in New York court recently is that of Shane Kenneth Maloney, 35, who also has alleged ties to the West End gang. He was arrested in November, with more than 100 people, in Operation Loquace, a Sûreté du Québec investigation into drug trafficking. The SQ alleged last year that Maloney, who faces nine charges in Operation Loquace, has close ties to the West End Gang. His bail hearing in that case is scheduled for May and he has another case pending in Montreal where he is charged in connection with a vicious assault on a Montreal police officer in Mexico in January 2011.
Another name that leaps out from the list is “Moms Boucher,” a possible reference to Maurice (Mom) Boucher, 59, the Hells Angels leader who has been behind bars since 2000. Boucher was convicted of orchestrating the deaths of two prison guards. Cournoyer would have been about 20 years old the last time Boucher was a free man.
Also on the list are the names of two men who have been indicated with Cournoyer in New York as part of the same investigation — Patrick (Peg Leg) Paisse, 40, of St-Jérôme, and Mario Olivier Racine, 32, of Laval. Both men are currently trying to avoid being extradited to the U.S.
The district attorney in New York also revealed last week that as part of its case, it recently disclosed Correctional Service of Canada records of the people who visited Cournoyer while he was serving a sentence, between 2005 and 2007, at a federal penitentiary in Quebec.
Source: montrealgazette.com