Prosecutors ask judge to reject appeal of former Vice Media worker convicted of recruiting cocaine mules
Prosecutors are asking a judge to dismiss the long-awaited appeal of Ali Lalji, a former Vice Media employee in Canada who was convicted of helping arrange cocaine smuggling into Australia, saying his arguments raise no issues requiring the court’s intervention.
Lalji, now 37, was arrested seven years ago this month and convicted in 2021 of conspiracy to import cocaine into Australia, but he still hasn’t started his prison term; he remains on bail waiting for his appeal.
His case formed part of a sensational case that revealed an abuse of the Toronto headquarters of trendy Vice Media to recruit interns, models, and entertainment figures to smuggle cartel cocaine from the United States.
Five recruited drug mules — four Canadians and one American — were caught by border guards at Sydney airport in Australia shortly before Christmas in 2015 carrying almost 40 kilos of cocaine hidden in their luggage. It was assessed a value of $22 million by Australian authorities.
The secrets of the cocaine plot were revealed in an investigative feature by National Post in February 2017, including the shocking role of Vice music editor Yaraslav Pastukhov, better known by his pen name Slava Pastuk, in recruiting the mules while an editor with the youth-oriented media empire.
Pastukhov and Lalji, who had also worked at Vice, were later arrested by the RCMP in January 2019 and charged with an international cocaine smuggling conspiracy.
Pastukhov pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December 2019 to nine years in prison. He served time and has been released on parole. The five mules also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison in Australia and have also served their time, been released and returned home.
Lalji, however, took a different path . He pleaded not guilty and leveraged his family’s wealth and significant legal representation to fight the charges, included making constitutional challenges.
His trial didn’t start until 2021 and it didn’t end until 2023, when he was also sentenced to nine years.
Lalji still didn’t go to prison, however. Instead, his lawyers appealed the conviction and his sentence and secured his immediate release on $1 million bail pending the outcome of an appeal.
He has been out on bail ever since.
His appeal application was finally completed and filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario in the summer.
The Crown filed its response to Lalji’s appeal materials on Dec. 29, in which federal prosecutors Maria Gaspar and Sarah Malik ask the appeal court to dismiss the appeal of both Lalji’s conviction and sentence.
“Ali Lalji was a member of a conspiracy that imported nearly 40 kilograms of cocaine into Australia. He facilitated travel, provided direction and communicated with couriers tasked with transporting cocaine secreted in suitcases,” prosecutors wrote.
“The appellant was convicted based on the testimony of a co-conspirator, text messages, email communications, and audio recordings.
“On appeal, the appellant seeks to revisit admissibility rulings, challenge the trial judge’s treatment of evidence, and relitigate findings of fact. Respectfully, these claims should be dismissed. There was no error in the trial judge’s findings and the exercise of discretion by the trial judge in other matters is entitled to deference.
“This appeal should be dismissed.”
In Lalji’s appeal, his lawyer, Ravin Pillay, complained that secret audio recordings of the cocaine plot being explained to a new recruit (found by police on the phone of one of the drug mules) should not have been admitted as evidence at trial because there was no “proper authentication” of them.
Pillay also claimed the trial judge erred in handling Pastukhov’s testimony which is crucial because “the entirety of the Crown case was circumstantial.” Pillay said the judge wrongly allowed hearsay evidence, misapplied the legal doctrine of wilful blindness, and assessed a conspiracy that was not for the same conspiracy Lalji was charged for.
Prosecutors disputed those contentions in their filing.
“Many of the appellant’s arguments on this appeal amount to an invitation to reassess the merits of factual disputes litigated at trial,” prosecutors wrote.
“This Court does not retry a case and substitute its opinion for the assessments made by the trial judge. Appellate deference is owed to all factual findings, including the inferences drawn from primary facts and to global assessments of the evidence.
“The trial judge considered the evidence before him and his own common sense when he rejected Pastukhov’s incredible claims, including that he did not know cocaine was being imported into Australia.”
“The primary position of the respondent is that the trial judge found that the appellant actually knew he was a party to a scheme to import cocaine into Australia.”
Prosecutors also dispute Pillay’s contention the prison sentence “is unduly harsh.”
“Given the multi-kilo quantity of cocaine imported, and that the appellant’s role in the conspiracy was greater than that of a mere courier,” prosecutors wrote, “the sentence imposed is fit and should be afforded substantial deference on appeal.”
The trial judge described Lalji as Pastukhov’s “deputy” in the cocaine plot.
The appeal court will hear Lalji’s appeal this month.
• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys
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