Pubdate: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Page: A7 Copyright: 2003, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Author: Colin Freeze, Crime Reporter Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) DRUG LORD'S SENTENCE ENDS 15 YEARS EARLY Mafia drug lord Alfonso Caruana has been paroled from his 18-year drug-trafficking sentence -- just three years after a judge jailed him. Despite being a kingpin of an elaborate multimillion-dollar global business involving quantities of cocaine that law-enforcement officials term astounding, Mr. Caruana is considered by Canadian authorities to be no different than any other first-time, non-violent offender. As such, he has automatically been given the benefit of the doubt by Canadian officials -- though new charges from his native Italy are keeping him in jail and out of a halfway house for the time being. "You have been convicted of extremely serious drug offences and are said to be a member of an organization known to use violence to achieve criminal objectives," reads an April 14 National Parole Board decision sent to Mr. Caruana. "There is, however, no information available in your case linking you personally to any possession or use of weapons or to any acts of violence," the decision says. Simonne Ferguson, regional director of the board's Ontario branch, says the law leaves parole-board members no discretion when it comes to first-time, non-violent offenders such as Mr. Caruana. "If there is no evidence of violence, then the board must direct the day-parole release," Ms. Ferguson wrote in a letter to The Globe and Mail. She said such offenders get out of prison after serving one-sixth of their terms, without even having to appear at a hearing or make a case that they have reformed. By now, Mr. Caruana would have already been sent from a minimum-security prison and into a halfway house -- had Italy not laid new charges against him three days before he was paroled. He is now in a gritty Toronto jail as extradition proceedings surrounding the new charges begin. Mr. Caruana is expected to seek bail and also battle any attempt to remove him from Canada. On top of the new Italian charges, the long-time resident of Woodbridge, Ont., has already been sentenced to 21 years by Italy. Canada has a law that seeks to make reputed gangsters spend at least one-third of their sentence in prison, but a Quebec decision effectively quashed that rule, finding it unconstitutional in most cases. The April 14 National Parole Board decision makes reference to Mr. Caruana's "large-scale drug offences" but says he has no known history of personally assaulting anyone. He has, however, been ordered to stay away from others with organized-crime connections, including several members of his own family. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager