By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Honduras - Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 18 -- On February 28, 2020 an indictment from 2013 was unsealed in US v. Enzo Vettese, and the defendant was remanded with bail conditions including a return to Montreal stayed until March 3.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave added to the districts the defendant could travel to the Northern District of New York. The defendant's lawyer said there were unspecified medical issues to be addressed, and Judge Cave summoned her up to the sidebar. Inner City Press was the only media in the Magistrates Court.
The background, recounted from documents the SDNY US Attorney's Office filed in Vettese’s Quebec court proceedings: law enforcement set up surveillance in 2013 near Park Avenue and East 20th Street. They zeroed in on red Pontiac Montana with a Quebec licence plate. A middle-age man carrying a travel suitcase approached the van, loaded the case into it and drove off. Enzo Vettese, a 67-year-old Montrealer, was pulled over shortly after. When the agents searched the car and opened the suitcase, they found wrapped in individual bundles, held together with rubber bands, $242,880. Now Vettese he lost a challenge before the Quebec Court of Appeal after failing to convince the federal justice department the extradition order violates his Charter rights. Next up: co-defendant Edgar Belapatino.
The case was assigned to Judge Denise L. Cote, who after a plea held a sentencing proceeding on December 18. Inner City Press covered it.
Judge Cote said it was a serious crime, and what was found in 2013 was probably only the "tip of the iceberg." Still, due to the conditions of confinement during COVID, and the additional time in ICE custody he'll spend on the way back to Canada, Judge Cote sentenced him to time served.
The case is US v. Vettese, 13-cr-987 (Cote / Cave).
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
