| Allan "The Weasel" Ross |
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| Allan Ross, born in the mid 1940s and known as “The Weasel”, would become one of Canada’s most recognized and influential gangland leaders. Authorities have labelled Ross as being the fifth biggest cocaine trafficker in North America. After allegedly started his criminal career as a $200-a-week runner in the 1960s, Ross eventually rose to become the right-hand man of Frank Peter “Dunie” Ryan, the infamous leader of the loosely-knit West End Gang. When Ryan was brutally murdered on November 13, 1984, Ross quickly filled the void and take over his network and contacts. But as the loyal subordinate that Ross was, his first order of business was to avenge Ryan’s death. |
Thirteen days after Ryan's death, his alleged murderers Paul April and Robert Lelievre, along with two of their associates, were blown up in an apartment building. The blast tore their bodies to bits and injured eight others. Ross had allegedly hired Hells Angels Yves “Apache” Trudeau and Michel Blass to carry out the plot, promising to pay the duo $200,00. He later reneged on the deal, paying the hitmen only $25,000 and telling them to collect the balance from other Hells Angels, who had Ryan hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug debts. Ross would forever remain loyal to his friend Ryan. A couple of years later, he approached Montreal Gazette columnist Nick Auf der Maur in bar to pass along a message to two of the journalist’s friends who were prying into Ryan’s life. “Why do you guys at The Gazette brother Dunie’s kids?” Ross was quoted as asking. “Say anything you want about us, but leave the kids out of it.” “Ryan’s dead,” the gangland chief continued. “Why not leave him alone? What’s the point? Why not attack us guys who are still around?” After Ryan’s death, Ross worked hard to secure contacts in the United States, South America, and Europe. He hooked up with reputed drug trafficker William Blackledge Sr., who allegedly introduced the West End Gang leader to top bosses of Colombian drug cartels. Ross held a meeting with the drug kingpins in Aruba and agreements were reached. Drugs were soon flowing through the United States and up into Canada. On the east coast, the West End Gang distributed the drugs to other gangs, including the Hells Angels, while on the west coast, one of Ross’s top men, George Neill, was supposedly responsible for distribution. Whenever associates were arrested, Ross would pay their legal bills, according to authorities. The West End Gang also began sending large cocaine shipments to Europe, where some of the drugs were distributed by members of the Sicilian Mafia. On one occasion, 600 kilograms were sent to Spain. Ross supposedly benefited from information provided by well placed source in law enforcement. Claude Savoie, the assistant director of the RCMP’s criminal-intelligence service in Ottawa, allegedly leaked confidential information about Montreal drug investigations to Ross. Savoie would become under investigation for his alleged actions and commit suicide. In March 1985, another West End Gang member suspected of playing a role in Dunie Ryan’s death was murdered. Edward Phillips was about to get into his car, when someone walked up behind him and pumped several shots into his back. Phillips slumped to the ground, and his attacker fired one final bullet into his skull. The killer then fled on the back of a motorcycle, supposedly driven by David Singer, another reputed member of the West End Gang. With the heat surrounding Phillips’ murder, Singer decided to lay low down in Florida. Ross soon began to doubt whether Singer could stand up to the police pressure and decided to eliminate the man who could link him to the murder, police say. Reputed West End Gang members Allan Strong and Raymond Desfossés were sent down to Florida to do just that, authorities claim. David Singer was supposedly lured into a car, where he was shot several times in the head. The body was then dumped on a street in Dania. As Strong and Desfossés then allegedly made their escape, they went through a red light, attracting the attention of a Florida Highway Patrol officer. As the cop approached their car, one of the men stuck a firearm out of the window and shot him in the leg. Police discovered David Singer’s body shortly thereafter. On him, police found the telephone number of Allan Ross’s wife. In 1990, John Quitoni, a former New Jersey detective and Ross associate, was convicted of smuggling marijuana. Rather than endure a stiff prison sentence, Quitoni rolled over and spilled the beans on Ross’s criminal empire, including David Singer’s murder. Quitoni claimed Strong and Desfossés had met with him after the murder and admitted to carrying out the plot. Ross was arrested in October 1991, as he and reputed associate Brian Hanley got out of a Mercedes at the kingpin’s Fort Lauderdale’s condominium. Police claim that Ross tried to buy his freedom by offering an agent a $200,000 bribe. The underworld chieftain was charged with leading a continuing criminal enterprise responsible for importing at least 10,000 kilograms of cocaine and 2,000 tonnes of hashish between 1975 and 1989. The arrest came just months after Sidney Leithman, Ross’s lawyer and close friend, was gunned down as he drove to his office one day. He was shot at least six times in the head and neck in what was described as a professional hit. Leithman was a well known criminal lawyer and defended some of Montreal’s top organized crime figures. It was later reported that Leithman had been an RCMP informant from as early as 1975. Ross’s trial lasted six weeks, in which prosecutors presented more than 100 witnesses. One of the informants, Gaétan Lafond, a Montreal-based drug trafficker, would later be gunned down as he sat in a restaurant near Medellin, Columbia. It took the jury a day and a half of deliberation before returning a guilty verdict. Ross, who had sat quietly throughout the trail and sucked on candy, stood silently as the judgement was announced. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $10 million. As if that wasn’t enough, Ross then went to trial on charges of the murder of David Singer and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. Security was tight and onlookers had to withstand metal detectors, body searches, and police dogs before entering the courtroom. During the trial, one witness claimed that while in prison, Ross agreed to pay members of the Hells Angels $13,000 if they killed John Quitoni, the government’s principal witness. Ross was acquitted of first-degree murder, thereby sparing him the electric chair. However, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined $250,000. The sentence was attached to the end of Ross’s earlier judgement of life imprisonment. “Ross says they can ship his body to Florida to start the last 30 years,” the West End Gang boss’s lawyer was quoted as saying. A Florida appeals court later overturned the convictions for conspiring to commit murder and traffic in cocaine. The court ruled the government tainted the evidence by prosecuting Ross on two unrelated charges at the same trial. Ross is serving his life sentence for running a continuous criminal enterprise at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. |