| Giovanni Cazzetta |
| Giovanni Cazzetta, Salvatore's younger brother, was born in 1957. He grew up on the mean streets of Saint-Henri and joined the Outlaws motorcycle gang at a young age. He remained an Outlaw until 1984 when he quit the club to form the Rock Machine biker gang with his brother. They recruited some of the best talent around and formed alliances with the Italian Mafia, the West End Gang, and the Dubois Gang. Giovanni would hold the position of second-in-command. Only Salvatore would hold more sway. Police found Giovanni in possession of three kilograms of cocaine in April 1992. Facing a lengthy and costly trial, the biker - who speaks Italian, English, and French - pled guilty in the spring of 1993 and was sentenced to four years in prison. |
| In May of 1997, a police informer, posing as a front for a wealthy Calgary businessman looking to import 15 kilos of cocaine to Alberta, tried to set up a drug transaction with the Giovanni. But the Rock Machine leader didn't have such a large amount and set up a meeting with Richard Matticks, a powerful lieutenant in the West End Gang. The three men sat in a restaurant on May 14, 1997 and Matticks agreed to sell the informer 8 kilograms of cocaine at $39,000 each. Police rented an apartment on Saint-Urbain street for the transaction and equiped it with hidden microphones and cameras. Matticks sent henchmen Frank Bonneville and Donald Waite to deliver the cocaine and pick up the $312,000 owed him. Montreal's Carcajou anti-gang task force burst into the apartment, arrested both men, and seized the drug. The agents then obtained a warrant for Cazzetta and Matticks, explaining to a judge that the two men had been directly involved in the drug deal. Giovanni, who lived in Chateauguay, was arrested in Montreal while Matticks was apprehended at his house in Lachine. Neither man was armed or put up resistance. Cazzetta and the three West End gangsters were charged with trafficking in narcotics and conspiring to traffic in narcotics. Matticks, Bonneville, and Waite pled guilty on June 17, 1997 and were sentenced to three, four, and two years, respectively. Cazzetta, who was still on parole from his 1993 drug conviction, chose to fight the charges and went to trial. He was sentenced to nine years on April 14, 1998. While incarcerated, Cazzetta, who has never held any legitimate job, was found guilty of money laundering. He received five more years, to be run concurrently with his nine year sentence, and the government seized much of gang leader's assets, including his engraved Rock Machine gold ring, a 1994 Jeep Cherokee, a 1959 Corvette, and a 1992 Lexus. |
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