A young woman who infiltrated an alleged crime syndicate involved in murder and drug smuggling says she's disappointed in the justice system.
Tami Morrisroe said she feels Coquitlam resident Salvatore Ciancio, 34, who police believe has links to the criminal underworld, should not have been allowed out of prison.
"The justice system is failing the Canadian people," Morrisroe said by
telephone from an undisclosed location."Morrisroe is in the witness protection program after she went undercover and worked for the RCMP to try to solve Lower Mainland murders and crack a drug cartel. Her story was reported by The Province's Bob Stall two weeks ago.
She became an informant, wired for sound, in a bid to get information to have her father Sid, 63, released from prison, where he's serving time in the 1983 murder of Penthouse nightclub owner Joe Philliponi.
Ciancio, who has been in custody since May 2, was granted $15,000 bail yesterday pending a court hearing on weapons charges. He remained in custody overnight and is expected to be released today after clarification of bail conditions.
Provincial court Judge Dolores Holmes ruled that two parties must put up the bail surety and that Ciancio must report to a Burnaby probation office daily. He is forbidden to apply for a passport.
Ciancio's sister, Patricia Favretto, who provided some of the bail with the help of friends, hooted in triumph and crossed herself at her brother's release. Ciancio is required to live at his sister's Coquitlam home as part of bail restrictions. He is alleged to be a suspect in a $12-million RCMP probe involving at least eight drug-related deaths.
The alleged murders under investigation include: The execution-style killings of Eugene and Michele Uyeyama in their Burnaby home in December 1995; the Abbotsford murder of cocaine dealers Raymond and Sonto Graves, Sonto's son David and another couple, Daryl and Theresa Klassen, on Sept. 11, 1996; and the shooting death of Terry Watts in Vancouver last August.
Ciancio's lawyer, Ken Young, has suggested his client is being set up by Tami Morrisroe, who obtained hours of wiretap evidence while undercover. Young said yesterday that a murder charge against his client - if it's laid - cannot be proved without supporting evidence.
Ciancio, an auto-body-shop worker, faces six counts of restricted-weapons charges.
Young says there is no forensic evidence linking the weapons with his client or the murders.
Ciancio will next appear in Coquitlam provincial court next Friday for a disclosure hearing in which the Crown's case will be sketched out for the defence.
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