A Vaughan man who once owned an upscale restaurant on Dufferin St. recently used Toronto airport employees to smuggle cocaine into Canada from South America, court heard.

Diego Serrano, 68, pleaded guilty on Monday to three drug-related charges before Justice John McMahon in University Avenue Court after being charged in a sweeping police investigation called Project OPhoenix.

Serrano admitted that he brokered drug deals in the GTA in 2014 and 2015 and tried to convince an undercover police agent to invest in a scheme to bring cocaine up from South America.

Serrano, who was represented by Carolyn Kerr, admitted he attempted to sell two ounces, half a kilo and a kilo of cocaine in three separate drug deals with the undercover agent.

Back in 1992, he was described as the mastermind of a drug importation ring that brought some 12,000 kg of cocaine into Canada from Colombia.

He then ran an upscale restaurant on Dufferin St. and invested funds into a $14-million luxury condo complex in southern Italy. That condo complex included a personal suite for Serrano with an indoor waterfall and a compact Rogers Centre-style retracting roof over a swimming pool.

He was extradited from Italy and eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Court heard on Monday that in the latest operation, Serrano told an undercover police agent he brought cocaine into Toronto on flights, using two workers at the airport who took 30 per cent of the proceeds in turn for letting it through.

“You understand the consequences of pleading guilty,” Justice John McMahon asked.

“Yes sir,” Serrano replied in a soft, gravelly voice.

Serrano remains free on bail, pending a court date Jan. 8 for sentencing.

Serrano, who wore a tailored black suit, rubbed rosary beads before addressing the court. He was accompanied to court by a husky man who carried Serrano’s camel hair overcoat.

Federal Crown Jeremy Streeter told court that Serrano met repeatedly with an undercover police agent in 2014 and 2015 to act as a broker in cocaine deals, connecting sellers with buyers.

Court heard that Serrano told the undercover agent that the cocaine came from Peru and Colombia, sometimes winding through the Maritimes.

One load was rerouted when customs workers started scanning shipments in Halifax, he said.

Some of the cocaine was flown into Toronto on flights from Colombia, he told the agent, “There’s some stuff coming that’s hidden in cement,” Serrano told the undercover agent.

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Court heard that Serrano wasn’t truthful with the agent. On May 14, 2014, he told the agent he was going to the Dominican Republic and then Colombia, but a search warrant yielded a ticket that showed he flew to Rome instead on that date.

Serrano’s past record includes four cocaine trafficking charges dating back to 1994 and a parole violation.