A trial for one or more of four men facing U.S.-Canada drug trafficking charges could be averted with a negotiated resolution to the case, a Vancouver provincial court judge heard Oct. 25
Lower Mainland residents Martino Calabretti, 59, Daniel Alexander and Zlatko Gavric face charges of conspiracy to import cocaine. Calabretti and Vincenzo Sansalone, 62, also face charges of trafficking in MDMA (ecstasy) and MDA (synthetic amphetamine).
Calabretti faces two additional counts of trafficking in MDMA.
Pretrial hearings in the case began Jan. 18.
“We are heading toward resolution on this,” Sansalone’s lawyer Jamie Cooper told Judge James Sutherland.
The arrival of the case before a Vancouver provincial court judge came after a complex investigation led by federal RCMP officers based in Kelowna.
RCMP federal serious and organized crime investigators executed numerous search warrants in March 2018 throughout the Lower Mainland in related to a “high-level MDMA trafficking and cocaine importation investigation.”
The search warrants captured 12 kilograms of MDMA and $380,000 in cash. The money was allegedly going to be used as a down payment for 18 kilograms of cocaine to be brought into Canada.
More than 200 investigators, several RCMP units and U.S. partner law enforcement agencies were involved.
Court dockets indicate offences occurred in Vancouver, Surrey, Langley, San Diego and Seattle.
The charges were laid in April 2021.
Sansalone is reportedly a full-patch member of the Hells Angels’ Haney chapter.
The next appearance in the case is Nov. 1 with another date set for Nov. 15.
With files from Colin Dacre
