| Alain Levy |
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| Alain Levy was born in the mid-1950s and, along with his brother Gérard, grew up in Casablanca, Morocco. According to a news report, the two brothers grew up around Daniel Serero, who would make the headlines of Montreal dailies in the mid-1990s, for allegedly running an international drug network. Levy and his brother Gérard were arrested in mid-August, 1995, for allegedly trying to sell a stolen 1635 Van Dyck painting to an undercover cop for $2 million. The painting, which portrays a young James II, duke of York, was stolen from a East Berlin museum in 1990. The brothers were arraigned in court, and ordered to give up their passports and put up $7,500 for bail. The charges against the brothers would eventually be dropped, after it was ruled that the painting that they were trying to sell, while several hundred years old, was not the piece that had been stolen in 1990. The Levys said they bought the painting in 1988 at a marche-aux-puces. |
Levy and his brother were again arrested on April 17, 1996, when authorities busted what they described as a “massive joint drug ring” between two criminal gangs. The ring allegedly consisted of a total of 24 members of the Montreal Mafia and the Serero Gang, led by Daniel “The Arab” Serero, the Levy brothers’ childhood friend. Police seized three of the Serero organization’s shipments during the operation - 2200 kilograms of hashish in Montreal, 400 kilos in Toronto, and another 500 kilos in London - and made the arrests as the group was allegedly about to take possession of 170 kilograms of cocaine. The group was accused of importing 3500 kilograms of cocaine and hashish between April 1, 1994 and April 18, 1996. On May 6, 1996, Levy, Steve Cunha, Salvatore Panetta, and Roderick Januska were denied bail. Judge Jean-Pierre Bonin described the group as the “central core” of the Serero organization. Bonin did release Alain Levy’s brother Gérard on bail for what he described as “humanitarian reasons,” so that he could take care of his ailing father. |