911 operator charged with leaking police information connected to organized crime figure
A Calgary 911 operator accused of leaking protected police information to an organized crime group is connected to a man currently serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for drug trafficking and who is currently before the courts on extortion and weapons offences.
Marian Buonincontri, 58, faces charges of breach of trust, fraudulent use of a computer system with intent to obtain computer services and mischief in relation to CPS or RCMP data.
The offence dates listed in court documents span from March 1, 2022 to Jan. 26, 2023.
Police have not said which organized crime group or member Buonincontri is affiliated with in Calgary.
Her lawyer Pat Fagan says his client "denies any association with organized crime figures."
No-contact order
But newly accessible court documents show that as a condition of her release, Buonincontri is forbidden from having contact with two men — a man listed on the records as "Steven Mark (Teti)" and Domenico Loiaconoa, a Calgary man with ties to organized crime in the city.
Fagan's son Sean Fagan, who is also a defence lawyer, represented Loiacono in his drug trafficking trial in 2021 during which eight members of the Calgary Police Service's (CPS) gang enforcement team testified.
In 2018, as part of a police investigation dubbed "Operation Gotham," Loiacono, 32, was caught with more than 11 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine — with a street value of nearly $900,000.
A pre-sentence report filed as part of the sentencing hearing further illustrates Loiacono's organized crime affiliation.
According to the report, Loiacono was removed from restaurants on several occasions by members of the gang suppression team, which is permitted legally "to remove members of known criminal organizations" from liquor-selling establishments.
Debt owed to local gang
According to Justice Karim Jivraj's sentencing decision, Loiacono told his probation officer he was selling drugs to "[get] out of a debt he owed to members of a criminal organization."
But the judge instead agreed with prosecutor Levi Cammack and found Loiacono to be a mid-level wholesale drug trafficker.
Jivraj handed Loiacono a six-and-a-half-year sentence.
"Common sense and ordinary human experience tells us that one does not get to handle this amount of cash and or drugs unless one is affiliated in one way or another to a larger network of suppliers and distributors, an inference wholly supported by the evidence," wrote Jivraj.
Organized crime unit prosecuting case
Loiacono appealed and was granted bail pending his appeal decision.
He is accused of further criminal activity while out on bail in 2022.
Loiacono was charged with extortion and four restricted firearms offences for which he is currently set to go on trial in September.
A prosecutor with the Crown's organized crime unit is assigned to the case.
In December 2022, during the course of an unrelated investigation, police learned that protected police information had been leaked.
200 images of sensitive data
The investigation led investigators to Buonincontri, who was first arrested on January 26, 2023. She was questioned by police and released without charge.
Over the next year, investigators executed warrants and seized Buonincontri's electronic devices.
According to CPS, its digital forensics team recovered 200 pictures of sensitive data on the devices.
"The investigation determined that the data was intentionally pulled from searches targeting individuals connected to organized crime activity and was then provided to other individuals involved in organized crime," according to police.
Buonincontri was arrested and charged on Jan. 26, 2023, nearly a year to the day after she was first questioned.
In a statement released following the arrest, CPS alleged Buonincontri "used her position" as a 911 call taker to access the information.
Buonincontri is due back in court next week. None of the allegations against her have been proven and a trial date has not yet been set.
