Reputed Bonanno Assoc Snagged in $1B Drug Bust

The New York Post is reporting that "a rogues’-gallery alliance among the Canadian Mafia, outlaw bikers and a Mexican drug cartel supplied New York City with nearly a billion dollars in marijuana," according to authorities and new court documents.

Running the group was French Canadian drug kingpin Jimmy “Cosmo” Cournoyer, who was done in following a five-year probe by the DEA and police from Laval, Quebec, where Cournoyer once lived, according to the Post.

Cournoyer is now awaiting trial in Brooklyn federal court. He was described as the man behind a  “vast international drug-trafficking enterprise that has been in existence for more than a decade,’’ prosecutor Steven Tiscione wrote in recent court papers, as reported by the Post.

The newspaper identified reputed Bonanno crime-family associate John “Big Man” Venizelos as "one of Cournoyer’s biggest customers in New York City..."  Venizelos is currently out on bail in the case, the Post reports.

Venizelos lives in downtown Manhattan pad and works as a manager at a Brooklyn nightclub called Jaguars 3, the newspaper reports, adding that, overseeing the club is Vincent “Vinny Green” Faraci, a reputed Bonanno soldier previously charged with managing the Crazy Horse Too strip club, located in Las Vegas, according to the Post report.

"[Cournoyer's] pot supply... was transported in motor homes and trucks across Canada with the help of the Hells Angels, officials said. The motorcycle gang and the Montreal mob then smuggled the pot from Quebec into upstate New York, authorities said. Trucks delivered it to a warehouse in Brooklyn, sources said," according to the Post.

"Millions of dollars generated by the marijuana sales were eventually used to buy cocaine from Joaquin Guzmán Loera, the leader of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel — with the sale of the coke further financing the marijuana operation in Canada, feds say."

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