Ex-customs officer in Mafia bribe gets light sentence
Last Updated: Thursday, May 13, 2010 | 1:49 PM ET
CBC News
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A former Montreal airport customs officer has been given a "lenient" sentence after she was found guilty of aiding drug smugglers dodge authorities.
Nancy Cedeno, a former airport customs officer, was found guilty of accepting bribes from cocaine smugglers. (CBC)Nancy Cedeno, 34, teared up in a Montreal courthouse as Quebec Court Judge Claude Millette handed down her sentence on Thursday.
The former Trudeau airport employee was given a sentence of two years less a day, to be served in the community.
Millette said the "lenient" sentence will allow Cedeno to get her life back on track after she grew depressed and suicidal following her 2006 arrest in the Colisée police crackdown on organized crime.
Cedeno told reporters she is relieved.
"It's been four days [and] I haven't been sleeping.... Wondering what's going to happen to my children. Right now, I'm just happy that this morning, when I told them goodbye, [I said] that I would see them later."
Cedeno was found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for providing drug smugglers with preapproved customs slips.
The paperwork would have allowed them to bypass any bag search. According to court documents in her case, the forms were never used.
Cedeno will have to continue psychotherapy, stay away from bars and illegal drugs, and obey an overnight curfew. Her sentence requires 200 hours of community service.
Hundreds of people were arrested during the 2006 Colisée operation, including many alleged members of the powerful Rizzuto family.
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