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Roberto Scoppa, the brother of deceased Montreal Mafia leaders Andrea and Salvatore Scoppa, was denied bail Friday in a case where the U.S. government is seeking his extradition on charges involving alleged cocaine and heroin smuggling.
Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard delivered his decision at the Montreal courthouse. Scoppa, 55, was arrested in Montreal on Jan. 30 as part of Operation Dead Hand, an investigation into drug smuggling between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
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Most of the other people charged in Operation Dead Hand were arrested in the United States. Scoppa’s lawyer, Jeffrey Boro, argued there is no evidence that his client committed a crime there.
Scoppa faces several charges in an indictment filed in California, including possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and heroin as well as conspiracy to export controlled substances. The onus was on Scoppa to prove he merited a release.
Blanchard decided that Scoppa provided insufficient evidence that he could be monitored while released.
The judge also noted how, during the Operation Dead Hand investigation, Scoppa told a co-operating witness who was working undercover that he was making $1 million a year by smuggling what he considered to be small amounts of drugs into Canada per month. He told the undercover agent he considered 100 kilograms per month to be a small amount.
Blanchard said the amount of money Scoppa is alleged to have made illegally dwarfed the bonds he was willing to post to secure his release.
While summarizing the evidence heard during the bail hearing, the judge said, “The undercover agent posed as an individual who could facilitate the transportation of drugs for Eduardo Carvajal (50, of Mexico) operating in Guadalajara and John Joe Soto’s organization operating in Guadalajara.”
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According to a media release in January by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for California’s Central District, Soto is alleged to have worked for Jesus Ruiz Sandoval, 45, a fugitive being sought in Operation Dead Hand who is “believed to be a large-scale drug trafficker involved in importing drugs from Mexico into the United States for distribution.”
“Eduardo Carvajal, also an alleged large-scale drug-trafficker, is believed to export drugs from the United States to Canada. Robert Scoppa is an alleged Canadian drug trafficker with close ties to an Italian organized crime family in Montreal.”
In a recording with the undercover agent in November 2022, Carvajal is heard to say he knew Scoppa for eight years, considered him a friend and that Scoppa spent his winters in Guadalajara, Mexico. On Dec. 2, 2022, Scoppa and Carvajal are alleged to have arranged for a shipment of drugs from the U.S. to Montreal.
Scoppa is alleged to have told the undercover agent that someone would arrive in a Jeep to pick up the shipment with a specially marked $20 bill.
The RCMP arrested two men when the drugs where supposed to be transferred. The RCMP found the $20 bill and 19 four-kilo bricks of heroin and more than 14 kilograms of cocaine.
“The court concludes that there is proof in the record that shows that Scoppa was a participant in a transaction that originated in California,” Blanchard said.
The extradition case returns to court on April 26.
In 2019, Scoppa’s brothers were killed on different dates in Laval and Pierrefonds. During recent murder trials held in Montreal, an informant alleged that both Andrea (who was also known as Andrew) and Salvatore Scoppa were behind the 2016 murders of several important members of the Rizzuto organization, including the death of Rocco Sollecito who was acting as the leader at the time.
Scoppa’s family ties were not a factor in his bail hearing.
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