The arrests of brothers Frank Alessio and Angelo Alessio—two wood flooring contractors in St. Catharines, Ontario—in February 2011 for drug possession resulted in the arrest of drug kingpin Nick Nero the following May. Recently, police in the Niagara region discovered that Nero was not just a regional drug dealer but allegedly was the ringleader of an international organized crime ring responsible for trafficking $1.9 billion worth of cocaine into Canada annually, according to the Niagara Falls Review.
The arrests of brothers Frank Alessio and Angelo Alessio—two wood flooring contractors in St. Catharines, Ontario—in February 2011 for drug possession resulted in the arrest of drug kingpin Nick Nero the following May. Recently, police in the Niagara region discovered that Nero was not just a regional drug dealer but allegedly was the ringleader of an international organized crime ring responsible for trafficking $1.9 billion worth of cocaine into Canada annually, according to the Niagara Falls Review.
The revelation that the arrests of the Alessio brothers led to the downfall of a drug ring worth hundreds of millions of dollars came Thursday when the Niagara Regional Police (NRP), in coordination with nine other Canadian law enforcement units as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, made arrests in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. This time the authorities nabbed four men and one woman in what it has dubbed "Project Ink 2," signifying its relation to Project Ink 1, which led to the downfall of the Alessios and Nero as well as the seizure of 110 kilograms of cocaine worth $30 million.
Now the NRP is saying that Nero was the top person in charge of a drug smuggling operation that spanned North America, South America and Europe. Nero's operation was allegedly bringing in as much as 400 kilograms of cocaine into Canada each week. Some of it was being smuggled across the U.S.-Canada border in trucks and in boats crossing the Niagara River; it was also being smuggled into Canada via the ports of Montreal and Vancouver, B.C.
"The Niagara investigation exposed a far and wide reaching criminal organization that is alleged to have been responsible for bringing staggering amounts of cocaine into this country on a regular basis," Tom Andreopoulos, an associate chief federal prosecutor, told the Niagara Falls Review.
Frank Alessio, owner of Artwood Flooring Inc. (St. Catharines, Ontario), Angelo Alessio, who works as an installer at his brother's company, and Nero are being held by the NRP and are awaiting trial, according to Shawn Clarkson, the NRP's staff sergeant, intelligence.
