Source: Toronto Star (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Copyright: 1998, The Toronto Star
Pubdate: Sun, 6 Dec 1998
Page: A9
Author: Dale Brazao, Toronto Star Staff Reporter

EX-MOUNTIE'S LOW PROFILE HID LIFE ON THE RUN

Villagers saw him as local boy who made good

CALHANDRIZ, Portugal - When Jorge Leite bought the luxury villa overlooking
this picturesque hillside village, neighbours figured he was just another
local boy coming home to savour the fruits of his labour overseas.

The new Toyota minivan and Volvo station wagon parked in the driveway
suggested that he'd made it big during his dozen years in Canada.

So did the fancy swimming pool built to cater to the Lisbon gentry.

And in the vineyard adjacent to his white stucco mansion, the former
Canadian Mountie began the tricky work of breeding snails for consumption.

What they couldn't know was that their new neighbour was living a secret
life on the run from Canadian police and Interpol.

The extravagant lifestyle, including the snail farm, was just a cover,
carefully crafted to hide the life he'd left behind, including allegations
that as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer he was on the take from
Colombian drug lords.

During his seven years in this secluded enclave of 200 people, Leite, 47,
kept a very low profile, rarely mingling with locals.

But Leite's carefully crafted cover was blown earlier this year when the
local media reported he was about to go on trial in Portugal for crimes he
allegedly committed while on the RCMP's drug squad in Montreal between 1987
and 1991.

Only then did locals learn that Leite had fled Canada in May, 1991, during
an RCMP investigation that would allege he'd been on the take, receiving
more than $500,000 in goods and benefits from the Cali Colombian drug
cartel.

The villa here, a beach-view condo in the Algarve, several cars and a
bundle of cash were all the result of what Mounties say Leite received from
drug dealers in exchange for secret information on RCMP drug
investigations.

After a two-year investigation, the Mounties charged Leite in 1993 with
corruption, fraud and breach of trust, and embarked on a long diplomatic
effort - ultimately fruitless - to bring him back to Canada for trial.

And while Portugal steadfastly refused to extradite him - Leite has dual
nationality and Portugal does not extradite its nationals - authorities
here did agree to put him on trial on the Canadian charges.

Last week, Portuguese police scooped him from a Lisbon suburb, where his
family had recently moved after selling their Calhandriz mansion for a
reported $400,000. He will be held without bail in a Lisbon jail, awaiting
a precedent-setting trial scheduled for early next year.

To assist Portuguese prosecutors, the RCMP have delivered a confidential
500-page dossier detailing the results of their two-year investigation.

``We are not out for vengeance,'' says Inspector Yves Roussel, who has
spent the past five years trying to get Leite into a courtroom. ``But we
would like to see justice done and close the file on Leite.''

The scandal severely tarnished Canada's national police force, shining a
spotlight on the activities of the entire RCMP drug squad in Montreal
during the early '90s.

Leite's then-boss, Inspector Claude Savoie, shot himself in 1992 while
investigators were waiting to grill him about his own mob ties.

The RCMP later said an investigation showed Savoie had been on the take
from Montreal's notorious West End Gang, receiving more than $200,000 to
protect their drug turf.

Leite has told Portuguese investigators that anything he did, he did on
orders from Savoie.

Recruited by the RCMP at age 37 because his ability to speak French,
Spanish, English and Portuguese, Leite made an ideal agent to penetrate the
murky world of international drug networks.

After attending police college in Regina in 1987, the former marine was
posted to Spain on a major international anti-drug operation, Roussel says.

What nobody counted on, Roussel says, was Leite switching sides, becoming a
mole for Colombian drug barons.

Documents filed with courts here and in Canada show just why the Mounties
are so determined to get Leite. Search warrants filed in Canada claim Leite
sold information on drug investigations to convicted drug queen Ines
Barbosa on at least 49 occasions.

His alleged role as a mole discovered, Leite vanished, police say. He then
faxed his resignation and asked for details on his pension benefits.

Leite eluded a police tail in Montreal, then made his way to Toronto, where
he airfreighted his new $31,000 Toyota minivan and bought tickets for
himself and his two children on the same KLM flight.

Leite's wife, a part-time nurse at Reddy Memorial Hospital, stayed behind
just long enough to pack up the contents of their three-bedroom apartment.
She joined the family in Portugal after arranging to have her Volvo follow
her.

The minivan, the RCMP say, was a gift from Barbosa, who police describe as
the ``godmother'' of the Cali cartel.

Convicted drug dealer Luis Lopes, Leite's best friend, later told police
that Leite had bugged him incessantly for an introduction to Barbosa.

Search warrants giving police access to Leite's bank accounts and income
tax returns, also revealed a substantial increase in income in 1990 and
1991. As well as buying the villa here ``with cold cash,'' the RCMP's
Roussel says, Leite was given a $120,000 condo in the Algarve resort of
Albufeira.

``This was an outright gift to Jorge Leite - no money changed hands,'' says
a police source who tracked the transaction and found the unit formerly
belonged to Montreal man with drug connections.

Detectives also discovered that his wife Maria travelled to Portugal with
more than $100,000 cash in a suitcase.

Sensing the end of his freedom, Leite contacted Montreal lawyer Kathlyn
Gauthier earlier this year to ask if she would negotiate his surrender and
his return to Canada.

But crown attorney Randall Richmond wanted no part of any deal.

``He wanted to negotiate his return,'' Richmond told The Star, saying Leite
was obviously concerned about his chances in a Portuguese court, where the
burden of proof is on the accused.

Still, Portuguese prosecutor Joao Parracho concedes, any penalty handed
Leite may not be severe.

``This happened in a foreign country,'' Parracho said. ``It was a long time
ago.''

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Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson