Montreal grandparent scam suspect extradited to Canada

Grandparent scam suspect extradited to Canada Patrick Dinucci, the alleged leader of a grandparents scam crime ring, is back on Canadian soil.

The alleged leader of a grandparent scam crime ring is back on Canadian soil.

Patrick Dinucci was arrested in Italy last year in connection with the defrauding of hundreds of seniors in Quebec, most in the Montreal area.

Dinucci, 32, arrived at Trudeau airport Friday afternoon after Italian police handed him over to detectives from Montreal who travelled to Rome to collect him.

He is last person to face charges after 23 people were arrested in the fraud ring in the Montreal area.

The scam entailed calling elderly people and telling them a relative is overseas and needs their help, pretending they are in legal trouble and need money.

Police say Dinucci and his associates defrauded some 500 seniors out of a total of $890,000. One person was scammed out of $100,000, police say.

The alleged frauds happened between 2014 and 2016, and Dinucci, a dual Italian-Canadian citizen, is said to have moved to Italy in 2015.

Police believe he operated the scam from there.

Extradition took close to one year, said Juan Francisco Vargas-Castillo of the Montreal police.

“On the 29 of March 2017, we signed all the papers and after that we send two detectives to Rome to take Mr. Patrick Dinucci and this afternoon around 2:45 he came in to Montreal,” he said.

Dinucci is expected to be formally charged Saturday and faces multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy.