Pubdate: Tue, January 19 1999 Source: Toronto Star (Canada) Page: A5 Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Author: Dale Brazao, Toronto Star Staff Reporter EX-MOUNTIE AWAITS FATE IN DRUG CORRUPTION TRIAL Portuguese Judges Give Verdict Today Against Accused Who Fled From Canada VILA FRANCA DE XIRA, Portugal - A seven-year saga of trust and betrayal, drugs and greed will come to an end in court here today. Former Mountie Jorge Leite, accused of selling information to Colombian drug lords, will learn from the three judges who tried him for corruption whether they believed his tangled story - that he is a scapegoat for the RCMP. The 48-year-old Leite, who fled to Portugal in 1991 as the Mounties were closing in, admitted during a three-day trial that, yes, he was on the take from Colombian drug queen Ines Barbosa. Yes, he did sell Barbosa secret RCMP information while working as a drug squad officer in Montreal in 1991. And yes, he accepted a $30,000 van from her. But it was all part of his job to infiltrate the drug cartel. His boss, Inspector Claude Savoie, ordered him to do it. And he turned over all the bribe money to him. Savoie killed himself in December, 1992. Even if the judges find Leite guilty of corruption, few here believe he will do any more time then the one month he's already served while awaiting trial. The maximum sentence is 14 years. Certainly, that's the opinion of Carlos Leite, who told reporters after the trial concluded last week that his brother was set up by the RCMP, intent on covering up corruption that existed higher up in the Montreal drug squad at the time. ``He's going to walk, and when he does, he's going to talk,'' the brother told a group of Canadian reporters covering the trial. ``They won't like what he's got to say. ``The RCMP was out to get my brother. He had no choice but to flee the country. When they couldn't get him they tried to get me, and I had to take off myself,'' he said, adding that statements attributed to him that implicated his brother with the Colombians were complete fabrications. The Mounties, he said, were so obsessed with Barbosa they would stop at nothing. ``They wanted me to wear a wire and I refused,'' he said, adding that he worked as Barbosa's driver for a time. In his closing statements, prosecutor Joao Parracho said he would not oppose a suspended sentence. The prosecutor pointed out that the case was old, and happened in a foreign country. He also told the court that he doubted Leite had acted alone in selling out the RCMP. The RCMP has admitted Savoie, Leite's police boss, was indeed corrupt. According to their investigation, he took payoffs totalling more than $200,000. RCMP Inspector Yves Roussel, who spent seven years trying to get Leite into a courtroom, looked uncomfortable as he testified that Savoie was on the take from another gang - the West End Gang in Montreal - and not the Barbosa group. ``It is an incredible coincidence that two officers on the same squad were found to be corrupt,'' Roussel testified. Roussel also testified that while Leite admitted to taking only $45,000, his investigation showed it was more like $200,000. And that doesn't include his $400,000 villa and condo in the Algarve. The Mounties knew they were taking a chance when they brought their case here. But they say they had no other choice because Portugal does not extradite its nationals. The Mounties believe local police knew Leite's whereabouts for a long time but did not pick him up until The Star began investigating. And they are troubled by the treatment he has received. Unlike most accused drug offenders in this country, Leite was not handcuffed when he was escorted in and out of court, and was treated almost like a celebrity by some of his police guards. They also went to great lengths to foil journalists trying to photograph Leite, even using decoy vans. ``We're flying in the dark here. We don't know what to expect,'' Roussel confessed at the outset of the trial. Portuguese justice is quite different from the Canadian system. An accused who gives up the right to remain silent is grilled by the three judges, but does not swear to anything. And witnesses are not required to swear an oath; they merely promise to tell the truth. The proceedings are not taped or transcribed in any form. Only the judgment is in written form. And in a system where the accused is presumed guilty unless proved innocent, any doubts the prosecutor may have, such as what role Savoie played in this saga, must be weighed in favour of the accused. - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry