| Claude Faber |
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| Claude Faber, Frank Cotroni's brother-in-law, began his career in the 1960s as a doorman at the Casa Loma night club, a popular hangout for members of the Montreal Mafia. When Jules Csoman, an employee at the Plaza Hotel in Old Montreal, was murdered in November 1967, Faber and Jacques Pacetti were called in to testify at the coroner's inquest. No charges were laid since the two Cotroni Henchmen provided reliable alibis. In October 1968, Faber and Jos Di Maulo ambused Richard "Le Chat" Blass, who had been making trouble for several Mafia leaders, as he and Claude Ménard drove into a Saint-Michel garage. Blass was struck once in the head and twice in the back but survived. |
Faber was among several mobsters that accompanied Vic Cotroni, his younger brother Frank, and Paolo Violi to Acapulco, Mexico in February 1970 to meet with Meyer Lansky and other leaders of the American Cosa Nostra. The discussions revolved around how to split the profits from the casinos the Quebec government wanted to establish around the province. A dispute arose between Faber and Jos Di Maulo in the late 1970s over control of Local 31 of The Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union in downtown Montreal. Frank Cotroni, who was in Lewisburg penitentiary at the time on a drug trafficking conviction, had to settle the altercation through numerous phone calls from behind bars. Faber was unhappy with the boss' decision and chose to concentrate on his criminal activities in the Laurentians. Faber and Cotroni's relationship would be forever altered. In the Summer of 1983, Faber was overheard on a wiretap telling Frank Cotroni and Réal Simard that if Johnny Papalia, head of the Hamilton Mafia, made problems for their Ontario rackets to "kill the fucker - he's old enough to die." Faber was arrested with Michel Cotroni, Frank's son, in September 1985 and charged with cocaine trafficking. He was released on bail but his problems were just beginning. Operation "Si-Co", for Simard-Cotroni, was put into action on October 10, 1986. Montreal police raided the homes of several suspected mobsters. Faber was picked up at his Saint-Adele residence and charged with the 1982 murder of Claude Ménard. Frank Cotroni, his son Francesco, Daniel Arena, and Francesco Raso were also arrested and charged with the murder of Giuseppe Montegano. At the time of his apprehension, Faber was preparing to leave Quebec for Acapulco where he hoped to establish an important cocaine pipeline from Mexico to Canada. The trial began a month later, on November 11, and, as expected, the government's main witness was Faber's former comrade Réal Simard. The admitted murderer testified that he was present at the accused home on March 14, 1982, when Faber placed a firearm against the back of gangster Claude Ménard's head and shot him dead. He then admitted that he, along with Jean-Pierre Legault and Gaston Dodier, two of Faber's associates, stuffed Ménard's body into the trunk of his own car and abandoned it in the parking lot of the Venus bar in Saint-Adele. Claude Faber decided to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, and possession of an illegal firearm on September 1, 1987. He received a four year prison sentence and was paroled in the early 1990s. Upon his release, Faber began doing business with members of the West End Gang. He had been on the best of terms with them since the 1970s, when he purchased large sums of cocaine from Peter "Dunie" Ryan. With the apparent break down in his partnership with Frank Cotroni, the move was expected Claude Faber was arrested in Mexico on April 3, 2001, along with Hells Angels Guy Dubé, Georges Beaulieu, and Jacques Rodrigue, and associates Richard Lock, Alain Saint-Gelais, Jacques Benoit, and Mario Bonce. They were branded "undesirables" and shpped back to Canada. When they landed, Dubé was placed under arrest and charged, as part of Opération:Printemps 2001, with drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in drugs. |