 |
| Daniel "The Arab" Serero |
| Daniel Serero was born in Casablanca in the late 1950s and moved to Canada, where he settled in Montreal. Known as "The Arab," Serero associated himself with powerful underworld figures and used his international contacts to begin importing loads of cocaine and hashish. When the West End Gang's leader, Allan "The Weasel" Ross, was imprisoned, Serero filled the void. He also developed ties with some of Montreal's reputed organized crime figures, including Frank Cotroni and Adrien Dubois. Serero claimed to make a living working as a florist and declared only $21 959 in salary since 1989, all while spending almost $45 000 a month! He lived in a penthouse in Westmount, vacationed regularly, wore the finest clothing, dined at the most expensive restaurants, and bounced around town in a Rolls Royce. |
The RCMP claimed that Serero often used violence to settle his problems. His soldiers regularly threatened overdue drug customers and, in 1994, Richard Gleason, one of Serero's main enforcers, was sentenced to six years in prison for murdering a bouncer in a bar. Gleason had met with Serero prior to the murder but it was never proved whether Serero ordered the hit or not. In 1995, Serero and associate Wallace Lee set up a company that distributed 5,000 charity boxes around Montreal to collect donations for AIDS research. According to conversations recorded by police, the scam was bring in a lot of money and Serero hoped that they would eventually be making $200 000 a month from the operation. "This thing is booming by the minute," Serero reportedly said to Lee in one conversation. Serero was among 24 picked up by police on April 17, 1996 in a massive joint drug ring between the Serero Gang and the Italian Mafia. The members of his crew also arrested were Wallace Lee, Perri Perlini, Garbriele Casale, Steve Cunha, Lee Gilbert, Roderick Januska, Patrick Lee, Salvatore Panetta, Alain and Gérard Levy. Cunha and Gilbert would later switch sides and cooperate with the government. Police seized three of the gang'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 when the group was about to take control of 170 kilograms of cocaine. The 12 men were accused of importing 3500 kilograms of cocaine and hashish between April 1, 1994 and April 18, 1996. He pled guilty on August 29 and, a week later, was sentenced to 11 years by Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Bonin. In prison, Serero refused to finish his high school education. He told prison officials that he had enough contacts in the business industry that he would easily find a job upon release. Benefiting from a disposition in Canadian law, Serero was released in 1999, after serving only one-sixth of his prison sentence. His fortune is estimated to be worth an impressive $55 million! |