Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[CabriniGreen]

link here....
https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8 ... t-murders/

[antimafia]

To make it even MORE complicated.... this says RANIERI ordered the hits HIMSELF....


Police added that Daniele Ranieri, from Bolton, who fled to Mexico following a 2014 York Regional Police investigation into his activities, was recently found dead in a Mexican ditch. Ranieri is alleged to have ordered the hits.

Story continues below

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"Ranieri fancied himself a top guy and this might have been an effort to clean house," said York police Det. Sgt. Jim Kilby. "People didn't like way he operated and in return they sent a message to him."

Although police believe Tomassetti might

Jeremy Grimaldi is the only journalist who has written that Ranieri is alleged to have ordered the hits on Angelo Musitano and Saverio Serrano. However, the police never said this at the news conference last November, which I watched, when they made an announcement about charges being laid against Tomasetti, Cudmore, and Abdalla. The police have said only that Ranieri was a "person of interest" in both the Musitano and Barberi murders.

If Ranieri did order those murders, then the murder of Al Iavarone may not be revenge for Musitano's murder -- this is the main theory that has been floated -- unless Tony Iavarone had hired Ranieri and the hit team to kill Musitano.

Ranieri and other Italian figures in organized crime ran in the same circles. The paid police informant Carmine Guido mentioned Ranieri during the trial of Giuseppe Ursino and Cosmin Dracea in Toronto last year. From Peter Edwards's April 9, 2018 article:

Court heard from secret recordings made on December 23, 2014 of a conversation between Guido and Dracea, including conversations about Ranieri. Police say Ranieri was connected to the criminal organization of the late Vito Rizzuto of Montreal, who died in December 2013.

Ranieri has been a fugitive since 2015, wanted by York Regional Police on charges of extortion and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence

“He’s psychopath, man,” Guido told Dracea on December 23, 2014. “He’s crazy, man.”

Guido said he tried to provide work for Ranieri a decade earlier, after Ranieri was freed from prison.

“After a week I says, ‘I can’t keep this guy with me,’ ” Guido said. “He’s (expletive) crazy.”

Guido earlier testified that Ranieri was with him when they went to see a Russian immigrant who ran a cheque-cashing business on Steeles Ave.

There was some problem cashing a cheque and Ranieri seemed ready to kill over it, Guido said.

“This (Ranieri) kid shows up Vaseline all over his face, ready to murder, to kill the guy, right?” Guido said. “I says, ‘What are you doing? We’re here to talk, dude.’ ”

He was able to restrain Ranieri that night, Guido said.

I'd still like to see evidence that Ranieri was made, but even if he were, whose permission did he obtain to arrange for the killing of Musitano, whom I imagine many of us believe to be made? for trying to kill Saverio Serrano?

[antimafia]

I'm trying to help determine who the made Canadian members of the Buffalo Family are or were at one time, roughly in the last 30 years.

Please note that the murdered Carmen Barillaro, killed in 1997, was considered made by the FBI. In Peter Edwards's July 29, 1997 Toronto Star article, published the day after Barillaro's funeral, are the following two sentences: "As a teenager, Barillaro was a member of the Centre Gang on Clifton Hill. He built a fearsome reputation on Niagara Falls streets as he rose to become a 'made member' of the New York State mob's Niagara operations, according to the FBI."

Back on September 7 and 8, 1990, the Buffalo News published back-to-back articles that quoted FBI Special Agent Robert Ulmer, who referred to Barillaro as made. In both articles, Ulmer also identifies Nicodemo Bruzzese and Dominic Vaccaro (both Ontario based) as made.

Link to September 7, 1990 article (which NickleCity posted on Gangster BB Net last November):

https://buffalonews.com/1990/09/07/14-s ... local-mob/

Link to September 8, 1990 article, as well as some excerpts, appear below (I've added parenthetical information that I've surrounded with square brackets).

https://buffalonews.com/1990/09/08/figu ... ated-them/

Those arrested late Thursday and released on their own recognizance were Carmen Barillaro, 46, 6155 Corwin Crescent [Niagara Falls, Ontario]; Nicodemo Bruzzese, 40, of Tanbark Road, St. Davids [Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario]; Dominic Vaccaro, 44, 6740 Crawford St. [Niagara Falls, Ontario]; Frank J. Spadafora, 36, 6404 Jupiter Boulevard; Nicodemo Scali, 37, 6424 January Drive; John T. Cleary, 47, 6105 McLeod Road; Frederick Campisano, 42, 6353 Franklin Ave., and Joseph F. DeCaria, 28, 5729 McGrail Road.

[snip]

FBI Special Agent Robert Ulmer described Barillaro as the ringleader of the group, which he said is linked to a Hamilton-based faction of the Canadian mob. Ulmer said Barillaro, Bruzzese and Vaccaro are "made members" of the organization and answer to Buffalo organized crime leaders.
________________

If Bruzzese and Vaccaro are still alive -- I haven't checked obituaries yet -- they would respectively be 68 and 72 years old as of last September, but who knows, if alive, whether they are still active?

[snip]

I think I have found a reliable DOB for Buffalo Family member Dominic Vaccaro (first name could actually be Domenico or Domenic), who was living in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the time that FBI Special Agent Robert Ulmer was quoted in the previously mentioned articles in September 1990.

Some of you have gathered that private investigator Derrick Snowdy has occasionally tweeted photos of pages from the Hamilton Police Service's declassified intelligence reports (thousands of pages are apparently declassified). In a tweet last year that was a reply to a tweet by the National Post of Adrian Humphreys's very good article about Toronto-area 'ndrangheta boss Jimmy Demaria -- this isn't really relevant; just providing some context -- Snowdy also uploaded an accompanying photo. Below is the link to the tweet:

https://twitter.com/jdsnowdy/status/991416389675175941

I don't know the date of the intelligence report from which he uploaded the photo, seen below.

[JCB1977]

It's Evil Life by Clive small and Tom Gilling. And here is an article in today's Daily Mail about their huge presence in Australia:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... trade.html

Thank you very much UTC!

Excellent read!

[antimafia]

@ antimafia

Great Post!! I have a few observations, questions for anyone, really.....

I think we can agree, it's not the ONLY thing that's important, but mapping out the narcotics players does lead to interesting connections....

1. Was Nero the secret Niagra boss?

Was he on our list of possibilities of Buffalo members? Caputo as well?.....


And this operation Roadrunner, and this Nero- Caputo thing, did these come up in the discussion before?

I dont remember these operations being brought up as far as recent activity.... they caught me off guard.....

2. You are saying;
a. Hamilton has a long history of Narco traffickers by way of Mexico...

b. Carmine Verduci had a Hamilton based crew.

c. Verduci had ties to Mexico for heroin, perhaps cocaine too..

d. Verduci was the Trans - Atlantic messenger for the Siderno group in Canada and Calabria.
So it's possible he arranged shipments for this group as a whole....
e. You lost me a little on the Violis....
Were you saying the media overestimated thier international connections? Or the Media misidentified WHERE the connections are? Or both?

f. I thought the Violis connections were via Colombia. Typically, when a crime group goes through Colombia, it's to get around the Mexicans, to get that 4-5500 a kilo price range. That leverage is key, it's the advantage the Albanians are pressing in the UK.

Of course, this doesnt mean the Violis wernt dealing with Mexicans...

.
Are you saying you think the Violis had a rivalry with Verduci, and the Siderno group?

You think they killed Verduci?

You think they wanted to REPLACE Verduci even? As the point men for the trafficking, with Hamilton as the base? With the blessing of LCN?

And maybe, they were struggling with the question of whether or not Hamilton, or a reorganized Montreal was a better base? That's pure speculation there.....

g. Do you think there is a new arriving clan in Canada part of the power struggle, and if so, who might they be? Ursino? Or have they been there? Are they one of the Toronto 9?

I'll stop here, I got more questions....

CabriniGreen, I'll try to answer as many of your questions as I can but perhaps not all in one post. Below are answers to the questions you posed in point number 1.

1. Nick Nero would have likely been too young to be to be anyone important or significant when that August 21, 1999 article was published. His age was cited as 36 years old in April 2013 when some articles were published about the appearance in a St. Catharines, Ontario court by Martino Caputo, who two months earlier had been arrested in Cologne (Germany) and was in jail before being extradited to Canada in April 2013.

I don't recall any discussion on the boards about the possibility that Nero and Caputo were made into any mafia group. However, Caputo was usually identified in articles from the early 2000s as someone whom Vito Rizzuto saw, along with Caputo's twin brother Antonio, when Rizzuto visited Toronto -- I gather that mobwatchers think (thought?) of Caputo as an associate of Rizzuto, but then again, Caputo turned out to be a right-hand man for Nero.

As for investigations that targeted Nero and Caputo, there were discussions on the Real Deal about Project Ink I and II; I would have posted articles on Gangster BB in relation to those investigations but I don't think I ever discussed Nero and Caputo. Caputo was also charged in relation to one of the phases of the Project Clemenza investigation in Quebec.

I would have posted on both boards about Project Roadmaster, but there wasn't any discussion at all. Vito Buffone has some Mannos in his family tree, but as far as I know they are not related to the ones in Quebec. I could be wrong, though.

I think I'm getting close to determining who the unknown Niagara mob boss mysteriously referred to in the 1999 article is. From an article published the very same date:

[James] Dubro agreed, however, that a Niagara Falls hotel owner might be a strong candidate to replace Papalia. The hotel owner was identified in 1990 by an FBI mob expert as a "made" member of a Hamilton Mafia family -- that is, one who commands considerable status and respect within the organization.

He has connections with the Hells Angels and used to meet regularly with Papalia at his office on Railway Street where the late mobster conducted his illegal business.

Source: ORGANIZED CRIME NO. 1 RISK DEATH OF OLD-GUARD BOSS JOHN PAPALIA OPENS DOOR FOR HELLS ANGELS
Author: CAROL PHILLIPS AND PAUL LEGALL, THE SPECTATOR
Publication info: The Spectator ; Hamilton, Ont. [Hamilton, Ont]21 Aug 1999: A1.

I'm thinking that Domenic Vaccaro is the secret Niagara mob boss. I've just asked Dubro whether he is willing to confirm. What's interesting is that John Papalia didn't like outlaw bikers; he was firmly against the opening of a Hells Angels chapter in Hamilton.

[NickleCity]

^^^^^ Anti I don’t think it can be him. The 1999 article about a new boss said he couldn’t be named because he hadn’t been arrested. LE said:

"We can't say who he is because he has never been arrested," said Detective Sergeant Peter Polcetti, organized crime expert with CISC.

I believe Dominc Vaccaro had. See the 1990 article called: 14 SUSPECTS IN DRUG RING ARE SOUGHT CANADIAN ARRESTS TIED TO LOCAL MOB by Dan Herbeck

[snip]
Two of the suspects are considered high-ranking members of a Hamilton organized-crime family under the indirect control of the Buffalo mob, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Any drug activity or any organized-
crime activity in St. Catharines, Hamilton and Niagara Falls must be approved by the Buffalo family," one lawman said. "The mob families in those cities, and in Toronto, answer to Buffalo."

A restaurant and a motel in Niagara Falls, Ont., are among $14 million worth of property that could be seized by police as alleged profits of the ring, law enforcement officials said.

[snip]
As of late this morning, eight suspects were in custody, and authorities were looking for six others.

Police identified the suspects as: Carmen Barillaro, 46, of 6155 Corwin Crescent; Nicodemo Bruzzese, 40, of Tanbark Road; Dominic Vaccaro, 44, of 6740 Crawford St.;...

[snip]

Barillaro, Bruzzese and Vaccaro are all "made members" of a Hamilton-based Mafia family that reports to Buffalo organized-crime leaders, Ulmer said.

Ulmer said that Vaccaro has extensive contacts with Buffalo mob members and also supplies drugs to Western New York.

Here is the link to the article: https://buffalonews.com/1990/09/07/14-s ... local-mob/

[NickleCity]

Also do you think Dominic Vaccaro is related to the Rocco Vaccaro listed on the 2006 Buffalo crime family chart? Rocco was born 4-15-1916. Here is the catch: Feather doesn't list Rocco as Canadian on his chart, and the FBI has a SSN for him. So it sounds like he was on the American side. Thoughts?

[antimafia]

^^^^^ Anti I don’t think it can be him. The 1999 article about a new boss said he couldn’t be named because he hadn’t been arrested. LE said:

"We can't say who he is because he has never been arrested," said Detective Sergeant Peter Polcetti, organized crime expert with CISC.

I believe Dominc Vaccaro had. See the 1990 article called: 14 SUSPECTS IN DRUG RING ARE SOUGHT CANADIAN ARRESTS TIED TO LOCAL MOB by Dan Herbeck

[snip]
Two of the suspects are considered high-ranking members of a Hamilton organized-crime family under the indirect control of the Buffalo mob, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Any drug activity or any organized-
crime activity in St. Catharines, Hamilton and Niagara Falls must be approved by the Buffalo family," one lawman said. "The mob families in those cities, and in Toronto, answer to Buffalo."

A restaurant and a motel in Niagara Falls, Ont., are among $14 million worth of property that could be seized by police as alleged profits of the ring, law enforcement officials said.

[snip]
As of late this morning, eight suspects were in custody, and authorities were looking for six others.

Police identified the suspects as: Carmen Barillaro, 46, of 6155 Corwin Crescent; Nicodemo Bruzzese, 40, of Tanbark Road; Dominic Vaccaro, 44, of 6740 Crawford St.;...

[snip]

Barillaro, Bruzzese and Vaccaro are all "made members" of a Hamilton-based Mafia family that reports to Buffalo organized-crime leaders, Ulmer said.

Ulmer said that Vaccaro has extensive contacts with Buffalo mob members and also supplies drugs to Western New York.

Here is the link to the article: https://buffalonews.com/1990/09/07/14-s ... local-mob/

I'm also asking James Dubro to clarify whether the new Niagara mob boss who allegedly took over after Papalia was killed in 1997 could have possibly had a clean rap sheet. A June 5, 1997 newspaper article published after Papalia's death had various titles and some slightly modified versions, but the article versions all mentioned Carm Barillaro, Domenic Vaccaro, and Nicodemo Bruzzese as being individuals who regularly travelled from Niagara to Johnny Pops's Railway Street office when Pops was still alive. Example:

From his vantage point as an RCMP watcher, [Retired RCMP intelligence officer George] Bowen said, he observed some of the most notorious gangsters in southern Ontario pass through Papalia's street office in the last 10 years.

He said the most surprising visitor was Jimmy Luppino, a member of another Hamilton family that police have linked to organized crime. Police believed Papalia and the Luppinos were bitter enemies, but Bowen said the "talk-and-walk" session seemed cordial and businesslike.

Bowen also saw Carmen Barillaro, Nicodema [sic] Bruzzese and Dominic Vaccaro make the trip to Railway Street.

Conspiracy charges

The three Niagara Falls men were members of a Hamilton mob family, a Buffalo FBI agent said at the time they were arrested in 1990 on charges of conspiracy to import more than $2 million in cocaine and marijuana.

Robert Ulmer, a specialist in organized crime, said the three men were "made members of a Hamilton mob family." He did not identify the family.

[antimafia]

Also do you think Dominic Vaccaro is related to the Rocco Vaccaro listed on the 2006 Buffalo crime family chart? Rocco was born 4-15-1916. Here is the catch: Feather doesn't list Rocco as Canadian on his chart, and the FBI has a SSN for him. So it sounds like he was on the American side. Thoughts?

[snip]

Italy has twenty regions, and people with the very common and popular surname Vaccaro reside in every region. The particular regions from which most Vaccaros descend are Sicily, Campania, and Calabria. Now that you know Domenic Vaccaro's DOB (June 9, 1946, or 6-9-1946), you'd have to do some genealogical research to see whether he's related to the deceased Rocco.

[B.]

[snip]The Bordonaros were from Montedoro, which is where John Montana and some other early Buffalo/NF figures were from, so Calogero Bordonaro is a good candidate for one of the earliest Canadian members.

[snip]

B.,

Are you sure about the Bordonaros' ancestry? A while back I am fairly certain I found records for Calogero and his son Ignazio ("Harold") through FamilySearch.org that would establish ancestry from Racalmuto in Agrigento. I think you and I also had an exchange about this in another thread when you were discussing Nick Alfano speaking over the phone with Calogero.

Here are some links to what I've found (you will have to be signed in to FamilySearch):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=1876434

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q23H-8CFT

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XGR9-KNY

Nothing to add on Bordonaro's ancestry but I did come across a Magaddino transcript recently where he makes reference to Calogero Bordonaro being active with the Buffalo family in the 1920s -- possibly as early as the mid 20s. It doesn't specifically ID him as a member back then but it seems to suggest he was either in Buffalo or visiting Buffalo and that Magaddino tried to recruit him in a murder plot. Magaddino refers to him as "Calidu" or "Caliddu", a nickname for Calogero, and the phonetic surname is clearly Bordonaro.

[antimafia]

Re: my previous posts about today’s sentencing hearing for ‘ndranghetista Giuseppe Ursino and Cosmin Dracea.

“No excuses ‘besides being stupid,’ drug smuggler in landmark Mafia trial tells judge at sentencing hearing”

https://nationalpost.com/news/no-excuse ... g-hearing/

Alleged Mafia boss gets 10 years in historic case

https://torontosun.com/news/national/al ... oric-case/

[antimafia]

^^^^
Toronto judge sentences ‘Ndrangheta crime boss to 11 ½ years for cocaine conspiracy

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/0 ... iracy.html

[antimafia]

^^^^
Toronto Mafia boss, colleague given extra long prison terms while shadowy organization gets special scrutiny

http://nationalpost.com/wcm/ed4e82d7-94 ... c17a11a795

[antimafia]

Wow. I wasn't expecting that. I was at La Nova last year.

So it's come out that Buffalo has a structure after years of being considered dormant. Just goes to show how much we really know.

I will say this: this alleged underboss, the fact that he's on the Canadian side could imply that Buffalo operations continued to exist on the Canadian side while their interests in NY state dried up. When you look at a city like Utica today, any Buffalo members still alive must wonder just wtf they were fighting over?

30 members? I'm speculating that half of them are probably semi-retired.

Does anyone have any more information on the Todaros? What part of Italy the family comes from?

My understanding, based on other posters’ contributions to these boards over the years, is that Joe Todaro Sr.’s parents were from Sicily.

Josephine D. Todaro, his wife, had the maiden name Santamauro. A while back I found what I think is her father's World War I Registration Card -- go to https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-916P-97JH — but I could be wrong; Rosario was born in Ventimiglia di Sicilia (Palermo).

I recently picked up the digital editions of the two volumes of DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime. In Vol. II, on p. 199, footnote number 1193 is appended to the copy (text) "Joseph E. Todaro Sr." From Vol. II, footnote 1193, p. 304:

Birth records of Buffalo, NY; Birth records of Montallegro and Mussomeli, Sicily; Passenger manifest of S.S. San Giovanni, arrived New York City on May 19, 1911; Todaro-Frangiamore marriage record, June 2, 1920; Passenger manifest of S.S. Italia, arrived New York City on May 15, 1907; Passenger manifest of S.S. Berlin, arrived New York City on March 21, 1911; Passenger manifest of S.S. Prinzess Irene, arrived New York City on Oct. 10, 1912. Joseph E. Todaro was born Sept. 18, 1923, in Buffalo to Antonino and Salvatrice (Sarah) Frangiamore Todaro. Antonino Todaro was born Oct. 7, 1886, in Montallegro, Sicily, a small coastal village in the province of Agrigento. He arrived in the United States on May 19, 1911, aboard the S.S. San Giovanni. He was on his way to meet his brother Carmelo Todaro, 120 Erie Street in Buffalo. Antonino Todaro was naturalized a U.S. citizen on March 18, 1924. He married Sarah Frangiamore on June 2, 1920. Sarah was born Nov. 23, 1896, in Mussomeli, Sicily, a village in the province of Caltanissetta, to Salvatore and Francesca Garofalo Frangiamore. Salvatore Frangiamore, Sr., arrived at Ellis Island aboard the S.S. Italia on May 15, 1907. He reported that he was traveling to meet his brother-in-law Carmelo Mistretta, 243 Elizabeth Street, New York. Frangiamore, Sr., later relocated to the mining community of Ralston, PA, where his oldest son Filippo joined him. Within a year, Frangiamore relocated to Buffalo and sent for his wife and three other children. Salvatore Frangiamore, Sr., was naturalized a U.S. citizen on March 7, 1921.

[antimafia]

Cross-posting here, having previously posted on Gangster BB just a few minutes ago.
----------------
Paul Manning's tweet from earlier this morning:

https://twitter.com/mobinfiltrator/stat ... 3873037314

Paul Manning @mobinfiltrator

Everyone with interest always asks if I can prove a connection between Traditional Organized Crime in #Ontario & #Buffalo.

Here it is.

You’ll notice I removed the name of the @NYGov Governor who the @Fbi alleged has ties to the #Mafia.

@MobBuffalo @Charlie_Reports

8:43 AM - 16 Mar 2019