Guilty: Caza must forfeit drug and fraud profits

SEAN MCKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT— Iqaluit dope dealer Claude Caza wanted to make $1 million in the drug business and then get out.

Instead he’s been ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution and go directly to jail.

The Iqaluit restaurant pleaded guilty last week to trafficking in hashish and defrauding three insurance companies of $170,000 through a fire set at a building that used to house the “Snack” restaurant.

Four more arson-related charges and other charges of conspiracy to traffic in narcotics and possession were stayed by the Crown.

Caza entered his guilty pleas last Thursday after a day of intense negotiations between Caza’s lawyer, Pierre Morneau, and Crown prosecutor Roxanne Stanners. Caza had been scheduled to appear Wednesday, but negotiations took too much time and he refused to leave his cell that day.

“Mr. Caza was the main player in a well planned, long-term, profit-driven distribution system of large amounts of cannabis resin (hashish),” Stanners said in her submission to the court.

An August 28, 1997 telephone wire-tap by police caught Caza on tape saying that he wanted to, “make his million dollars and then get out of the drug trade and leave Iqaluit,” Stanners said.

$400,000 unexplained

Forensic accounting found Caza had about $400,000 in unexplained income. But thanks to federal proceeds of crime legislation, Caza won’t be allowed to keep the money he made from drug dealing and fraud.

He’s been ordered to forfeit $400,000 in real estate he owns in Apex and Iqaluit to the Crown. Caza’s old Snack property behind the T-1 building must also be forfeited so that he can pay back insurance companies.

Stanners said that Caza used drug trafficking profits and proceeds from the fraud to invest in his restaurant business and other properties. Under proceeds of crime legislation those other properties are considered “tainted” and subject to forfeiture.

Details of the forfeiture must still be determined by the judge, Crown and defence at a May 28 teleconference.

He’s also been sentenced, in addition to his time served awaiting trial, to spend three-and-a-half years in a federal prison with a six-month concurrent sentence for fraud.

Eight kilograms a month

In pursuit of his million-dollar goal Caza imported 200 kilograms of hashish to Iqaluit between Jan. 1, 1995 and March 23, 1998. The drugs were couriered from Montreal at a rate of 8 kilograms a month and sold both in Iqaluit and elsewhere in the Northwest Territories.

Dressed in a blue and green checked jacket, a dark tie and grey slacks, Caza sat silently in court as details of his exploits were read out. He made no statement at sentencing and remained expressionless throughout the proceedings.

His common-law wife and drug trade accomplice, Clara Rumboldt, sat quietly behind him in the gallery awaiting her own hearing and her spouse’s sentence.

Arrested in March of 1998, Caza waited 13 months for trial. It was a factor that figured prominently in Judge Brenda Keyser’s sentencing decision.

In the early days of the business Rumboldt helped Caza cut and package the drugs. In the end she also helped provide an argument for an amended charge.

Originally Caza’s charge said that he had been in the drug trade since 1991, but Morneau pointed to 1995 wiretap evidence that had Rumboldt saying that she and Caza were rookies.

It was a profitable business for the rookies. Stanners said Caza told authorities each gram of hash was worth $30 in Iqaluit, but would only fetch $10 on the street in Montreal.

“That’s an estimated profit of $20,000 per kilo,” Stanners noted.

It’s a profit margin that’s bound to tempt others say police.

“Unfortunately, when you can take $10 of hash and turn it into $30 of hash in Iqaluit, there will always be people like Mr. Caza,” RCMP Sgt. Glen Sigiersma said after the trial. Sigiersma, who headed up the investigation of Caza, said he was happy Caza was caught, but said he would have preferred a trial and a conviction.

Sigiersma’s two-year investigation produced many boxes of evidence, including wiretapped conversations that never made it to court because of Caza’s guilty plea.

“I would have liked to have had the wiretap evidence read into the record and have the people of Iqaluit, particularly the Inuit, hear what Mr. Caza really thinks about them,” said Sigiersma.

As Caza’s business progressed, he began selling to dealers instead of at the street level said Sigiersma.

“His underlings began to insulate him somewhat from the drug trade.” This decreased his risk of being picked up for trafficking, but also ate into his profits, said Siegersma.

Wiretap evidence figured prominently

Wiretap and listening device evidence comprised a substantial portion of the Crown’s case against Caza. Investigators monitored some 65,000 telephone calls and installed bugs in Caza’s various properties.

Caza’s lawyer said police even sent Caza a potted plant containing a listening device, which his client discovered.

“Mr. Caza confessed to the crime before he was charged,” Morneau told the court, saying that upon discovering the bug Caza played music for the officers who were listening and told them he was getting out of the drug trade.

Occasionally Caza would stop or slow down the shipments, which police say came from Montreal, because he feared scrutiny by police, Stanners said.

Conversations intercepted by police showed that Rumboldt often expressed concern about the danger Caza was in by being in the drug trade, Stanners said during Rumboldt’s hearing.

Rumboldt pleaded guilty to trafficking in a narcotic from January 1, 1995 to March 23, 1998. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue as Stanners read in details of the case.

The 56-year-old Newfoundlander was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day to be served at home, under supervision.

She has to abide by a curfew of midnight to 7 a.m. for the first six months of her sentence except for the purposes of employment. She also has to advise her supervisor of any change in employment or address.

“Miss Rumboldt fell into this activity. Had she not been involved with Mr. Caza it is not likely she would be before this court today,” Stanners said.

Siegersma said Caza was often brash about his operations and bragged about what he would do if he was caught. The RCMP believed Caza would flee the country if allowed out on bail and pushed to have him remain in custody, Siegersma said.

“He talked very openly about his personal involvement in the drug trade. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of his co-conspirator,” said Siegersma. Caza’s drug contact in the south would use code words, Stanners said.

Caza won’t squeal

Unfortunately for police, Caza won’t testify for the Crown at any further trials. Like some of his other accomplices, Caza made it a condition of his plea that he won’t have to testify in any further proceedings, Siegersma said.

“Ultimately it comes down to the cost effectiveness of a trial. It would have cost us $100,000 to put him on trial,” he said.

Among the mitigating factors Stanners submitted for the judge to consider during sentencing was the fact that Caza’s plea would save the court a three-month trial in which it was anticipated the defence would make a number of applications to exclude evidence, forensic experts would have to be called and some 50 police and civilian witnesses would be called to testify.