Drug smuggling

Drug-smuggling mobsters used retired police dogs to help secure cargo, court hears

Drug-smuggling mobsters have enlisted retired police dogs to safeguard multi-million dollar cargoes, a GTA trial heard.

On the witness stand, former York Region mobster Carmine Guido, 47, said on Monday that the elderly police dogs are trained in drug detection and can alert traffickers if their products aren’t securely wrapped.

“They’re good at sniffing,” Guido said under questioning from Crown Attorney Jeremy Streeter.

“When the dogs get old, they (police) retire them,” Guido told court, noting that some drug smugglers are happy to put them back to work on the other side of the law.

Guido’s comments came in the case against Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino, 64, of Bradford and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 41, of Toronto.

The case is historic because it’s the first prosecution in which the ’Ndrangheta has been targeted since the offense of criminal organization was created in 1997 in Canada, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said in an interview.