BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Two men accused of plotting the death of a girlfriend of one of the men have had bond set at $1 million by U.S. District Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly.
Daly said Wednesday that if Vincenzo Melia, 52, and Jerry Russo, 24, were able to make the bond, a hearing would be held before they were released.
The two men had been held since Saturday without bail after their arrests by the FBI for extradition to Canada.
At the same time, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested four residents of North York, a Toronto suburb, for allegedly conspiring to slay Melia's girlfriend, a Stamford, Conn. hairdresser, and also plotting the death of two Toronto businessmen and the beating of a third.
The United States target of the alleged murder plot was Helen Nafpliotis, a 32-year-old native of Greece.
Daly said the $1-million full-surety bond recommended by U.S. Magistrate Thomas P. Smith 'was on sound foundation, which included the defendants' foreign citizenship and the strength of the case against the defendants.'
Melia is a Canadian citizen and operates a masonry business in Stamford, while Russo is an Italian citizen who has lived in Stamford since he was 12 and operates a bakery in the city with a brother, Antonio.
Daly scheduled a probable cause hearing for Thursday in U.S. District Court for the two men.
The four men arrested in Canada were identified as Antonio Rocco Romeo, 32, and three brothers, Cosimo Commisso, 36, Michaele Commisso, 33, and Rocco Remo Commisso, 34. The Commisso brothers operate a bakery in Toronto.
