Pubdate: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Page: B4 Author: Nick Pron, Staff Reporter OTTAWA SEEKS TO SEIZE LAND FROM KINGPIN Cocaine trafficker faces jail in Italy after co-operating The federal government says it wants to seize 405,000 hectares of land in Venezuela that belongs to a drug kingpin who confessed to his crimes in a Toronto court yesterday. The spread near the town of Carapo is owned by Oreste Pagano, who was a major player in the international drug smuggling ring allegedly headed up by a 52-year-old Woodbridge man. Under tight security in a University Ave. courtroom, Pagano pleaded guilty to one count each of importing and trafficking in cocaine, and was sentenced to a day in jail. The 62-year-old father of five has been in custody since his arrest last year, and federal Crown Attorney Beverley Wilton told a court hearing the token sentence comes after Pagano agreed to co-operate with the authorities in the prosecution of others in what's reputed to be one of the biggest smuggling rings in the world. Immediately after he was sentenced, federal Crown Attorney Fergus ODonnell submitted a motion to Mr. Justice Hugh Locke stating the attorney-general of Canada has started proceedings on what was described in a brief as "the property." Pagano admitted to police he bought the land, in the state of Bolivar, from the proceeds of his drug smuggling, the brief stated. The federal government can seize the property under its proceeds of crime legislation. After he was sentenced, Pagano was whisked out of court under the protection of at least half a dozen police officers, some wearing bullet-proof vests. He will soon be headed back to his native Italy where he faces 28 years in jail after he was sentenced in absentia for drug smuggling offences. Wilton told the court Pagano acted as a broker, helping arrange cocaine shipments from Colombia, through Venezuela, and into Canada, where others in the ring, allegedly headed up by Alfonso Caruana, distributed the illicit narcotic. Caruana and 13 others were arrested in July, 1998, after an undercover operation headed in this country by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They are now on trial on charges of conspiracy to import and traffic in cocaine. They appear in court again on Dec. 21. In lengthy interviews with authorities, Pagano laid out how the operation worked, Wilton told court. Pagano's decision to co-operate "was done with great risk to himself and his family," Wilton told the Superior Court of Justice hearing. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst