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| - Francesco Cotroni, the fifth of six children, was born in Montreal in 1931. He followed his older brother Vic Cotroni into a life of crime and, by the late 50s, was a lieutenant in the Montreal Mafia. Unlike his older Calabrian born brothers, Frank felt more at ease speaking in French and English than Italian. He even married a French woman, Pauline Desormiers, and had six children. Cotroni was first arrested in September of 1960 with Joe Di Maulo and Michel "The Penguin" Di Paolo for possession of deadly weapons. He was carrying a gun that fired armor-piercing bullets. Two months later, while out on bail, Frank was again arrested after leading thirty family enforcers into Montreal's Chez Paree nightclub and trashing the place. $30,000 in damages were caused and he was once again behind ba
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| abstract
| - Francesco Cotroni, the fifth of six children, was born in Montreal in 1931. He followed his older brother Vic Cotroni into a life of crime and, by the late 50s, was a lieutenant in the Montreal Mafia. Unlike his older Calabrian born brothers, Frank felt more at ease speaking in French and English than Italian. He even married a French woman, Pauline Desormiers, and had six children. Cotroni was first arrested in September of 1960 with Joe Di Maulo and Michel "The Penguin" Di Paolo for possession of deadly weapons. He was carrying a gun that fired armor-piercing bullets. Two months later, while out on bail, Frank was again arrested after leading thirty family enforcers into Montreal's Chez Paree nightclub and trashing the place. $30,000 in damages were caused and he was once again behind bars. Cotroni and several of his soldiers were charged in the late 1960s with conspiring to dig a tunnel under Trans-Island street, in north-western Montreal, into the vaults of a City and District Savings Bank of Montreal branch. But the plot was uncovered by police before the tunnel could be completed and the loot, which would have been almost $6 million, was never pilfered. Although several of his men were found guilty, "The Big Guy" was acquitted of all charges. On February 1, 1971, while on vacation in Mexico, Cotroni was stopped and imprisoned by police following a complaint by an Acapulco jeweler concerning jewelry worth $2,080 which had been purchased on a stolen credit card. The whole ordeal turned out to be a misunderstanding but Cotroni had to spend 12 days behind bars before the mess was cleared up. In 1972, Cotroni was once again back in court. Dionysos Chionsis, a Greek immigrant, testified that three men had demanded $250 a week for "protection". One of the extortionists said that they worked for Frank Cotroni. But the case fell apart when, on his second day of testimony, the scared restaurant owner suddenly came down with amnesia. The charges against Cotroni were withdrawn. Problems continued to plague Cotroni and he was arrested on drug trafficking charges on November 8, 1974, as he met with his brother Vic. The case was brought before the Supreme Court of Canada and he was extradited to the United States to stand trail. The state's main witness, Sicilian drug trafficker Giuseppe "Pino" Catania, convinced the jury of Cotroni's guilt and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of $20,000. Cotroni was paroled on April 25, 1979, after serving a third of his prison sentence, and immediately returned to Montreal and continued his criminal empire. He managed to keep a low profile for a few years but, once again, Frank ran into trouble with law enforcement. He was arrested on August 30, 1983 in a St. Leonard restaurant after a federal grand jury in New Haven, Connecticut indicted him on conspiring to distribute heroin.
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