Jaime Restrepo and Michael Allen, both 34, and of Mississauga, and Zacky Deleon, 31, of Barrie, were found guilty in Brampton court of first-degree murder in the July 26, 2005 shooting death of Mauricio Castro, 31, also of Mississauga.
The jury rendered its verdict just before 4:30 p.m., after spending nearly two days deliberating. The verdicts mean an automatic life sentence for the trio, with no parole for at least 25 years.
In rendering their decision, the 12 jurors determined the men on trial planned and deliberately carried out the contract killing in which Castro was gunned down while sitting in his idling Ford Escape outside Burger King.
Crown prosecutor Steve Sherriff presented mounds of evidence showing the murder of Castro, an international drug dealer, was a business decision made by members of a large cocaine trafficking network.
"Castro's murder was not personal," Sherriff told jurors. "Castro had to go for business reasons.
"We have the mastermind (Restrepo), the killer (Allen) and the go-between (Deleon)," Sherriff said. "These men had a shared reason to commit the murder."
Defence lawyers didn't call any witnesses during the four-week trial.
Sherriff called several witnesses, including two men who, jurors heard, helped plan the execution-style killing.
Jurors believed the Crown's assertion that the three men on trial and two other GTA cocaine dealers planned and carried out the execution of Castro to move up the drug chain and avoid paying him a $1-million debt.
"The murder was done out of raw greed...get rid of the creditor. It was a shared activity," Sherriff said.
Jorge Acosta, who was granted immunity by the Crown in exchange for his testimony, told jurors he was the getaway driver and that it was Allen who pumped four bullets into Castro.
Allen was the hitman hired in exchange for two kilograms of cocaine, Acosta said.
Sherriff told jurors there was a "mountain of evidence" that shows Deleon was "actively involved" in the murders, including recruiting Allen as the paid assassin.
Sherriff also said it was Deleon who delivered Allen's payment in cocaine seven hours after the murder.
Castro was lured to the mall by Jorge Restrepo, 31, Jaime Restrepo's brother, believing he was going to receive $100,000 towards the $1 million owed to him.
The younger Restrepo also testified as a Crown witness.
Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and received a "lenient" nine-year sentence in exchange for his testimony, Sherriff said.
Jorge Restrepo admitted engineering Castro's murder on his older brother's orders, and luring him to the mall. He testified that Castro's father, Humberto, 71, was shot to death by different paid assassins, also on his brother's orders, four days later in Colombia.
Witnesses testified that Mauricio Castro headed a Colombian-based cocaine importing operation along with his father.
Because Canadian courts don't have jurisdiction over crimes in Colombia, none of the defendants were on trial for the father's murder, Sherriff said.
The Crown told jurors that the Restrepos owed Castro $1 million of $2.4 million in proceeds from the sale of cocaine in Ontario.
The $2.4 million was seized from a tractor-trailer by U.S. Customs at the Detroit/Windsor border.
lrosella@mississauga.net
