Neal Hall Vancouver Sun

ALL SMILES: Ken Young, lawyer for Salvatore Ciancio, outside courthouse

A procedural snag, however, prevented the release of Ciancio, whom the judge wants to appear in court again today. Apparently the judge will clarify that she wants some cash posted for bail.

The judge also ordered Ciancio to obtain sureties for $15,000, report daily to a bail supervisor, stay within the jurisdiction of the court, not apply for a passport, and not possess any firearms.

Ciancio was arrested May 2 and charged with six weapons offences related to three unregistered handguns -- a 9-mm Makarov pistol, a Stoeger automatic pistol and a .380-calibre Lorcin automatic handgun.

The Crown has alleged he was in possession of the restricted weapons in Coquitlam, which contravened a previous court order prohibiting him from possessing any firearms or ammunition.

The 10-year firearms prohibition stemmed from a 1991 conviction and four-year sentence Ciancio received after a shootout with Surrey police in a stolen truck.

Ciancio's lawyer, Ken Young, said outside court that there is no forensic evidence linking his client to the guns.

He suggested the allegations made by Ciancio's estranged wife, Tami Morrisroe, that the accused is a contract killer are "b.s."

Young noted police have been investigating Ciancio since last April -- if Morrisroe is to be believed -- and all the Crown could come up with was weapons charges against him, despite a reported $12-million police investigation.

"For 12 million bucks, you'd think they'd go with something more than gun charges," Young told reporters.

"There's not going to be other charges," he added when asked if murder charges might be forthcoming.

Sources, however, say the police investigation of the murder allegations is active and a report is expected to be sent soon to the Crown regarding charges.

Morrisroe, 26, married Ciancio last Sept. 22 while she was working as a police agent and wearing a secret microphone that allowed police to tape- record conversations.

She claims she infiltrated a criminal organization with links to the Cali cocaine cartel in Colombia.

During her months of undercover work, she has alleged, Ciancio told her details of eight Lower Mainland contract killings. He also told her he had killed two dozen people, she claims.

One of the guns Ciancio has been charged with possessing stems from a Makarov handgun Morrisroe alleges Ciancio gave her for protection, then told her to get rid of. She told him she threw it off the Queensborough Bridge, but gave it to police last September, she has alleged.

At the time, Ciancio thought the gun had been used in a mass murder of five drug dealers at an Abbotsford farmhouse last September, she claimed.

She alleged Ciancio thought the Abbotsford murders were supposed to be carried out using knives, but that he panicked when he read in the Province newspaper that a gun may have been used by the killers.

The other two guns were seized on Nov. 8 from a house containing a marijuana growing operation in Coquitlam. Ciancio was arrested by police as he was putting a key in the lock of the front door -- police were already inside searching. The defence doesn't dispute these facts, but Ciancio denies he had any connection to the two guns found inside the house.

Police tape-recorded conversations in Morrisroe's car before the arrest -- evidence that cannot be reported because of a limited ban on publication imposed at Ciancio's bail hearing at the request of the defence. Police also planted "bugs" -- tiny listening devices -- in the Coquitlam homes of Ciancio and his sister.

Ciancio's sister has denied the murder allegations made by Morrisroe, who now is in the witness protection program with her common-law husband, their children and Morrisroe's brother.

Young, who would not reveal who is paying his legal fees, suggested the Crown has no case against his client because Morrisroe will not testify unless her father is released from prison.

Sid Morrisroe is serving a life sentence for the 1983 murder of Vancouver nightclub owner Joe Philliponi. The man who shot Philliponi, Scott Forsyth, told police Sid Morrisroe planned the murder and gave him the gun.

Morrisroe, 62, a former boxing champion, has always maintained his innocence, claiming he was framed for the murder of Philliponi, 71.

Tami Morrisroe says she is working to have her father released from prison but plans to testify against Ciancio and others, even if her father isn't set free.

She is annoyed that her credibility and motives have been questioned, especially in light of a $500,000 offer from Hollywood for her movie rights.

"What I've been through is a high price to pay for justice," she said in a recent interview.

She said she went undercover to learn the truth about her father being framed -- a suggestion originally made by Ciancio -- after Justice Minister Allan Rock dismissed her father's applications for release or a new trial based on fresh evidence. Solicitor-General Herb Gray also turned down Sid Morrisroe's application for compassionate release because of health problems.

Rock recently asked senior justice department officials to investigate new evidence Tami Morrisroe claims to have found while working undercover.