New charges laid against alleged Montreal mobsters

As many as 100 new charges have been laid against people accused of belonging to the Montreal Mafia, including alleged bossNicolo (Nick) Rizzuto, who is still in police custody after a major crackdown in 2006.

The charges were filed in the Montreal Courthouse on Thursday against Rizzuto, 83, and four others accused of belonging to the Mafia.

The additional counts include extortion, bookmaking and possessions of proceeds of crime, specific indictments that are more precise than the first round of charges laid in the 2006 police operation dubbed Operation Colise, explained Crown prosecutor Yvan Poulin.

"What we did in November 2006 is lay a general account [of charges]," he told reporters outsidethe courtroom Thursday morning. "Today, we focused on specific events that occurred during the investigation."

More than 100 people were arrested after multiple pre-dawn raids across the greater Montreal region in November 2006, including several people alleged to behigh-ranking members of the Rizzuto clan.

Suspects taken into custody were charged with offences ranging from drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering to gangsterism.

The new round of charges include 12 counts against Nick Rizzuto, who renounced his right to a preliminary inquiry on Thursday.

His alleged associates Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi and Lorenzo Giordino also chose to skip their preliminary hearing.

All five suspects chose trial by jury instead, tobe scheduled at a hearing on Feb. 25.

More than 1 million taped conversations: prosecutor

The case is subject to a publication ban, but Poulin said the volume of evidence is extraordinary, with police submitting more than one million taped conversations obtained by wiretap.

Not all of them will be used in the trial, he said.

"I can tell you that many about 5,000, 6,000 conversations have been singled out as pertinent to the eventual trial," he told CBC News. "But in total, throughout the four-year investigation, police officers intercepted more than a million conversations."

A separate trial for several other suspects arrested during the 2006 sweep is scheduled to start Feb. 4 at the Gouin courthouse in Montreal.

Those suspects, all former airport employees, are accused of importing and smuggling cocaine through Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

Rizzuto and son Vito also wanted in Italy

Nick Rizzuto is also wanted by Italian police, who issued an international warrant for his arrest in October 2007, after they broke up an alleged Italian-Canadian Mafia clan reportedly involved in major drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations.

Italian police allege Rizzuto and his son Vitomanaged the operations from their respective prisons.

Vito Rizzuto, 61, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the United States after he was extradited there to face racketeering charges in connection to the murders of three suspected gang leaders at a Brooklyn club in 1981.

Vito Rizzuto,who is alleged to be amember of the Bonanno crime family in New York, pleaded guilty to the charge in May 2007 in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Italian authorities want to extradite both Rizzutos to face charges in that country but they'll have to wait until the father and son finish serving any time owed in North America.

Nick Rizzuto was taken from the Bordeaux detention centre in Montrealto hospital in April 2007 after experiencing chest pains.