Sabatino "Sammy" Nicolucci (; born 1946/47) is an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordi ...

mobster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

linked to the Sicilian

Rizzuto crime family The Rizzuto crime family () is an Italian Canadian crime family based in Montreal, Quebec, whose organized crime activity covers most of southern Quebec and Ontario. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considers the family a ...

based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada.

Links with the Rizzutos and sentencing

Nicolucci's first criminal conviction in Canada came in 1973 for drug possession, followed by possessing $2 million of counterfeit money in 1978. Nicolucci became a confidante of

Vito Rizzuto Vito Rizzuto (; 21 February 1946 – 23 December 2013), also known as "Montreal's Teflon Don", was an Italian-Canadian crime boss alleged to be the leader of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada. He headed the notorious Rizzuto crime family based in ...

, who went on a trip to

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

in 1984 where they met the allied

Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan The Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan () was a Mafia clan of the Cosa Nostra and held a key position in the illicit drug trade and money laundering for Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and 1990s. The Italian press baptized the clan as "The Rothschilds of the ...

, regarded as drug specialists. That same year, a probe into Nicolucci's drug trafficking by the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

(RCMP) found 12 kilograms of cocaine at

Vancouver International Airport Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island (British Columbia), Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is lo ...

false bottom A false bottom (or false back) is an internal partition in a container, typically at the bottom of a drawer, suitcase or similar item, enabling the concealment of objects from a cursory examination of the item's contents. A false bottom may be pr ...

suitcases intended for pick up by Montreal associate William Papier. The RCMP kept close surveillance on Nicolucci and Papier in Montreal through

wiretap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

s, and even followed them by plane to

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Venezuela where they received help from the United States Embassy in Venezuela, and bugged the mobsters hotel rooms. In 1985, the RCMP amassed enough evidence on Nicolucci and Papier, and the two were convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison in Montreal Superior Court in relation to the

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

haul; they appealed, but the verdict was upheld.

Release, kidnapping and another sentencing

In 1991, serving less than half his sentence, Nicolucci was released on

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

. Within months of Nicolucci's release, he was

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

, moving $31 million through a phony currency exchange in Montreal secretly run by the RCMP in an elaborate sting operation, called Project Compote. Officers traced a $1.7-million purchase of 280 kilograms of cocaine made by Nicolucci on behalf of Vito Rizzuto. However, Nicolucci refused to pay the debt to the Colombian Cali cartel, claiming the cocaine was of poor quality. As a result, the Colombians kidnapped Nicolucci from Castel Tina on August 2, 1994, a Montreal

strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

he managed, and smuggled him across the border to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Florida, and then into

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. With an international warrant for Nicolucci's arrest, the Colombian police found Nicolucci in a house in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

, Colombia in February 1995. He was

extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

back to Canada and brought back to Montreal on May 30, 1996. Nicolucci was found guilty of 437 charges for drug trafficking and money laundering, and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Later years

Nicolucci was paroled on Statutory Release in 2012. In September 2017, the

Parole Board of Canada The Parole Board of Canada (PBC; ; formerly known as the National Parole Board) is the Canadian government agency that is responsible for reviewing and issuing parole and criminal pardons in Canada. It operates under the auspices of Public Sa ...

forbid Nicolucci from Montreal's

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

, as well as "Italian-style" coffee shops or establishments that are recognized by the police as being a meeting point for members of Italian organized crime."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolucci, Sabatino Canadian gangsters Canadian people of Italian descent Criminals from Montreal People extradited from Colombia People extradited to Canada