From: Montreal Gazette
By Paul Cherry/GAZETTE CRIME REPORTER
MONTREAL — Gerald O’Reilly’s first night behind bars for his 5-year sentence for trafficking in millions of contraband cigarettes was no picnic.
The 81-year-old Beaconsfield businessman slept on the floor of a detention centre, with no mattress, and had no access to the medication his is required to take.
The conditions at the overcrowded detention centre on the first night of the sentence O’Reilly received Wednesday was just one of the arguments his lawyer, Isabel Schurman, made Thursday while seeking to have him released while he appeals his conviction.
In February, O’Reilly was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy, committing a crime for the profit of a criminal organization and laundering money. Over an 18-month period from, 2006 to 2008, O’Reilly and a dozen accomplices took part in a plot to purchase contraband cigarettes from Kahnawake and Akwasasne and ship them to Nova Scotia where they were sold. The police estimate the group sold $5 million worth of cigarettes, took in a profit of $2 million and cheated the federal government and the province of Nova Scotia out of $6 million in tax revenues.
