Importation of cocaine: a Longueuillois will be extradited and tried outside of New York city

Photo courtesy
Matthew Fernandes

Inmate

Éric Thibault

Friday, 25 August, 2017 17:34

UPDATE
Friday, 25 August 2017 19:41

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A Longueuillois that the police has tracked down on two continents, preparing deliveries of cocaine and carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars, will shortly be joining his boss in an american prison.

Matthew Fernandes has failed to convince the judge Pierre Labrie to reject the request of the us authorities seeking his extradition on Friday, at the palais de justice of Montreal.

Fernandes, 34 years old, as well as the alleged leader of an international network of cocaine importation, Iraklis Haviaropoulos, Brossard, had been arrested in march 2016 at the end of an extensive survey carried out between 2014 and 2016 by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), with the assistance of police officers from several countries in Latin America and the Sûreté du Québec.

According to the judge of the superior Court, the evidence amassed by the police forces is “sufficient” to support the charges of conspiracy and drug trafficking hanging over Fernandes and which the trial should be held at Albany, in the State of New York.

The big money

Fernandes – who was nicknamed ” Kid ” by his accomplices – would have given to a double agent that the SQ of the amounts of 200 040 $ and $ 170,000, Montreal, and Brossard, in the spring of 2015 and winter of 2016. It would also have been observed in Mexico and Peru, in the company of the suppliers of cocaine during this period.

Iraklis Haviaropoulos, notably accused of having imported at least 100 kilos of cocaine, is already detained in a prison in Albany since may, has not challenged his extradition before the american justice.

Fernandes had not declared any income to the inland revenue in 2015, according to court documents obtained by The Newspaper. The SQ, however, had seized 285 699 $ in canadian currency and $ 1600 u.s. dollars to his home in the borough of Greenfield Park, the day of his arrest.

This dirty money will probably go into the coffers of the State since the authorities have begun proceedings to confiscate this amount.

Matthew Fernandes will not be escorted to the United States before at least a month. The judge Labrie has ordered the incarceration of the accused to the prison of Rivière-des-Prairies for the next 30 days, the maximum period for which the latter has to decide whether he will or not his extradition before the Court of appeal.