A Laval man who recently admitted he served as the longtime right-hand man to a powerful Mafia-tied loan shark who was murdered five years ago has been granted day parole. He is serving a sentence for cocaine possession as well as the small collection of firearms found when police searched his home.
Nicolae-Catalin Vinersar, 51, does not have much in terms of a criminal record, but according to a written summary of a decision made late last week by the Parole Board of Canada, he recently admitted to his parole officers that he “was in the service” of a high-ranking organized crime figure for several years before he was arrested in January 2017 by the Montreal police as part an investigation into drug traffickers who operated in Montreal North.
Montreal police found a collection of firearms when they searched Nicolae-Catalin Vinersar’s home.
“Your (parole officers) underline that this man was considered to be the most important loan shark in Montreal and that he was a shareholder and manager in several companies that did private loans. He was involved in many illicit activities, including money laundering and, earlier in his career, in the importation of cocaine. He had links to outlaw motorcycle gangs as well as the Mafia and had many enemies,” the author of the summary wrote before noting that the same person was killed in 2013. “You maintain that your role was to drive your boss to different places during the day and insist that you never assisted in any events. You also transported astronomical sums of money to Toronto or from Toronto to Montreal for him at a rate of once a month.”
While the loan shark is not named in the decision, it is an apparent reference to Roger Valiquette, a well-known loan shark who was tied to Montreal Mafia leader Raynald Desjardins. Valiquette was gunned down in Laval in December 2013. In the early 1990s, he was charged in Florida in a conspiracy to smuggle 60 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. At the time of his death, he held permits that allowed him to lend money through a series of companies he owned. Valiquette’s murder remains unsolved. As reported by the Montreal Gazette in July, he was shot minutes after having dined with two West Island residents who were later alleged to be the leaders of a major drug-trafficking ring.
While attempting to explain to the board how he was drawn to a life of crime, Vinersar said he grew up in Romania when it was ruled by a tight-fisted communist regime. He said he was taken aback when he arrived in Canada and realized how much freedom he could enjoy compared to where he had come from.
When the Montreal police raided his home in Laval, they found 77 grams of cocaine, $10,000 in cash and six firearms. One of the firearms was a Tec-9 semi-automatic pistol equipped with a silencer. Police believe it was manufactured at Perfection Métal, a factory in LaSalle that produced several firearms that ended up in the hands of organized crime figures and were used in a series of Mob hits. The company’s owner, Jean-Pierre Huot, was sentenced in June to a seven-year prison term for manufacturing the firearms without a permit.
“The board is concerned by the dangerousness of the firearms found in your possession. You should have been aware that you were hiding prohibited assault weapons that could have caused serious danger and you closed your eyes to the risks they represented,” the parole board noted while explaining why it was turning Vinersar down for full parole for the time being.
He was granted day parole instead because his parole officers felt the risk he represents of reoffending can be managed at a halfway house. They informed the board that he appeared to have acknowledged the factors that contributed to his criminality and that he took part in a job program through which he was responsible for cleaning the main entrance to the penitentiary where he is serving time,