Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[cdc]

Yeh. I want to echo B. This isn’t a contest with sides. We all, at the end of the day, want to know what is what.

I thought it was a very interesting presentation. The history part was very inaccurate but even though he was a LE officer they aren’t researchers like us so i can understand that.

[Wiseguy]

Just now, on a live Mob Museum program on the Canadian Mafia, presenter Stephen Metelsky, a former police sergeant who worked on Project Otremes, is discussing Buffalo.

He is talking about the induction of Dominic Violi. He just said the 'Todaro Family" is still active. And that Joe Todaro is the boss of Buffalo.

“Wasn’t bravado, wasn’t boasting...he is old school mafiosi...there were 30 other candidates all American mobsters that were overlooked.”

Quite the statement above. 30 other candidates for the underboss position Buffalo all in the US. Does that mean there are more than 30 made men, and only 30 in the US were considered?

Yes, that is quite the statement. 30 members in the U.S. that he passed up for promotion to underboss. Not 30 members flying under the radar up in Canada because Canadian law enforcement is playing catch up. Not 30 members known to Canadian law enforcement but unknown to the FBI here in the U.S. 30 members right here in the U.S., about two thirds of which are apparently unknown to any law enforcement agency on either side of the border.

Let that sink in for a minute.

[antimafia]

I'm perplexed Metelsky said in his presentation that, while Vincenzo Morena was in Italy after having been deported from the US, Morena voluntarily contacted the RCMP about becoming a police agent. Shortly after the Project OTremens bust in November 2017, I had theorized on here that Morena was persuaded by the RCMP to become a police agent after his having been arrested in August 2014 in Laval, just north of Montreal -- see the articles to which I've linked below.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOXAFklFd95E ... 5e3qCjN3g/ (search the article for "Morena")

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOVoFzj54JtM ... EibVVeeC8/ (search the article for "police originally listed 29 arrests")

If Metelsky's version of events is correct, you have to wonder whether Morena's arrest in August 2014 was staged by the RCMP.

Did I mishear Metelsky say that Morena had a Brooklyn accent? Even if I misheard, when would Morena have grown up with Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, given Morena was apparently raised in Brooklyn? The brothers grew up in Montreal and then left for Hamilton, along with mother Grazia Luppino and their two sisters, at some point after Paolo Violi was killed in January 1978 -- at the time of the murder, Dom was 11, and Giuseppe was 7.

Did Morena actually ever serve a long sentence before or after 2001, the year he was sentenced in Brooklyn?

Before 2005/2006, was he ever an informant while a Bonanno associate in New York? Did he flip in 2001? Or is this an Internet rumour propagated by people with too much time on their hands?

Please see my notes, below, regarding the above questions and comments. I've also copy-pasted excerpts re: who was apparently present at Morena's induction ceremony in October 2015.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on or shortly before November 16, 2017:

Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one that began with his Brooklyn Federal Court indictment along with Bonanno soldier Baldassare (Baldo) Amato and 20 other Giannini Crew members who were vying for big time roles with the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino families.

After doing time for armed-robbery conspiracies of a bank and a bar, he was deported to Italy where he lived with his wife and son until 2011 when sources say he decided it would be easier for him to sneak back into Canada than the U.S., and he did so after his wife and son entered legally as visitors.

To make his detection as a convicted U.S. felon a trifle harder to spot, he became Vincenzo Morena, instead of the Americanized version he used growing up in Brooklyn. Sources say he flipped and began cooperating with the RCMP after he was arrested in August of 2014 in a suburb of Montreal as part of a coke smuggling ring.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on December 28, 2017:

Top Story Of 2017 Is Videotaped Bonanno Family Induction

It happened two years ago, but the videotaping of a Bonanno crime family induction ceremony in Canada, what acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde last month called "an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement," is Gang Land's Top Story Of The Year for 2017.

As Gang Land reported exclusively last month, the November 2015 initiation was videotaped by an Italian national who grew up in Brooklyn as Vincent (Enzo) Morena and was a member of the violent Queens-based mob farm team known as the Giannini crew that dealt drugs and robbed banks, bars, and other merchants in Brooklyn and Queens in the 1990s.

Morena, now 45, was deported to Italy after serving a 51 month prison term. Sources say several years ago, as Vincenzo Morena, he made his way into Canada where he "got back into the life" after setting up shop in Hamilton, Ontario, a port city about an hour's drive from Toronto. Sources say he began cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about three years ago.

During the ceremony, Morena is heard thanking the acting capo who conducted the induction ceremony, Damiano Zummo, after being told that "from this day forward, you're a member of the Bonanno family," according to a brief excerpt contained in court papers.

Based on Morena's cooperation, three others, including Gambino soldier Paul Semplice and mob associate Paul Ragusa, a former Giannini crew member who ran with Morena in the 1990s, are awaiting trial on various drug, extortion and weapons charges.

From Anna Sergi's "New York crime families survive and collaborate" article (https://www.academia.edu/36827024/New_Y ... ollaborate):

For example, Project OTremens court filings detail how an undercover agent became a member of the Bonanno family, with law enforcement recording the induction ceremony and the agent later introducing others to the Bonanno group. The initiation occurred in Canada, in the presence of Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, two Calabrian mafia figures from Hamilton, Ontario, whose father Paolo Violi was killed in 1978 by the rival Rizzuto crime family....

From Adrian Humphreys's article "'Congratulations': Undercover agent inducted into Mafia in secret ceremony captured on video by police" (https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/co ... by-police/):

What the gangsters didn’t know is the recruit was an undercover agent cooperating with police on both sides of the border and video and audio of the ceremony was secretly recorded.

The induction, involving at least five men, was allegedly presided over by Damiano Zummo, 44, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family.

“The reason why we’re here is from this day forward, you’re gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family,” Zummo says, according to a transcript of the ceremony.

“It’s already — from this guy, this guy, this guy — everybody approved it, so from this day forward, you’re a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations,” said Zummo.

“Thank you,” the recruit said.

The new member was then formally introduced to other members using the traditional Mafia code of calling a made man a “friend of ours,” and then old the internal hierarchy of he reports to, called a captain or skipper.

“And now I want to introduce you to John. John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, (name of agent deleted), friend of ours with the Bonanno. Now, your captain is (name deleted.)”

“Okay,” said the recruit.

“He’s our skipper. (Nickname of Bonanno member deleted), is our acting… You’re gonna be in our regime,” Zummo allegedly said.

“Okay.”

“You only answer to the Bonanno family.”

From Antonio Nicaso's article "From made-up to ‘made’ men: How myths keep the Mafia’s culture frozen in time" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... re-frozen/):

In November of 2017, police arrested Domenico Violi, a Hamilton father and salesman, on drug-trafficking charges. Mr. Violi’s trial exploded his reputation: Courts heard that he had told an undercover agent that he had been promoted to underboss of the Buffalo-based Todaro crime family – “the No. 2 man in charge of the 'whole thing,’” he said in an audio recording – one of the North American Mafia families often referred to as La Cosa Nostra.

In Mr. [Domenico] Violi’s own words, he and his crime family were taking over the whole city of Hamilton with the bikers. He had participated in an initiation ceremony that took place in a Hamilton hotel in the presence of a representative of the Bonanno crime family from New York, in an effort to solidify relations with American families; in the 1990s, Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, with the support of the Musitano brothers, masterminded the elimination of the Ontario representatives of La Cosa Nostra, creating an independent Canadian Mafia....

[OcSleeper]

Jonny Catz was caught on wire talking to Pat about Papalia needing to get hit. It was not assumed that they aligned with Vito after that.

Everything I have ever read has either outright said that or heavily implied it. Anyone I've seen talk about it has also said the same thing. It's not like I just imagined this

[CabriniGreen]

I'm perplexed Metelsky said in his presentation that, while Vincenzo Morena was in Italy after having been deported from the US, Morena voluntarily contacted the RCMP about becoming a police agent. Shortly after the Project OTremens bust in November 2017, I had theorized on here that Morena was persuaded by the RCMP to become a police agent after his having been arrested in August 2014 in Laval, just north of Montreal -- see the articles to which I've linked below.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOXAFklFd95E ... 5e3qCjN3g/ (search the article for "Morena")

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOVoFzj54JtM ... EibVVeeC8/ (search the article for "police originally listed 29 arrests")

If Metelsky's version of events is correct, you have to wonder whether Morena's arrest in August 2014 was staged by the RCMP.

Did I mishear Metelsky say that Morena had a Brooklyn accent? Even if I misheard, when would Morena have grown up with Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, given Morena was apparently raised in Brooklyn? The brothers grew up in Montreal and then left for Hamilton, along with mother Grazia Luppino and their two sisters, at some point after Paolo Violi was killed in January 1978 -- at the time of the murder, Dom was 11, and Giuseppe was 7.

Did Morena actually ever serve a long sentence before or after 2001, the year he was sentenced in Brooklyn?

Before 2005/2006, was he ever an informant while a Bonanno associate in New York? Did he flip in 2001? Or is this an Internet rumour propagated by people with too much time on their hands?

Please see my notes, below, regarding the above questions and comments. I've also copy-pasted excerpts re: who was apparently present at Morena's induction ceremony in October 2015.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on or shortly before November 16, 2017:

Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one that began with his Brooklyn Federal Court indictment along with Bonanno soldier Baldassare (Baldo) Amato and 20 other Giannini Crew members who were vying for big time roles with the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino families.

After doing time for armed-robbery conspiracies of a bank and a bar, he was deported to Italy where he lived with his wife and son until 2011 when sources say he decided it would be easier for him to sneak back into Canada than the U.S., and he did so after his wife and son entered legally as visitors.

To make his detection as a convicted U.S. felon a trifle harder to spot, he became Vincenzo Morena, instead of the Americanized version he used growing up in Brooklyn. Sources say he flipped and began cooperating with the RCMP after he was arrested in August of 2014 in a suburb of Montreal as part of a coke smuggling ring.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on December 28, 2017:

Top Story Of 2017 Is Videotaped Bonanno Family Induction

It happened two years ago, but the videotaping of a Bonanno crime family induction ceremony in Canada, what acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde last month called "an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement," is Gang Land's Top Story Of The Year for 2017.

As Gang Land reported exclusively last month, the November 2015 initiation was videotaped by an Italian national who grew up in Brooklyn as Vincent (Enzo) Morena and was a member of the violent Queens-based mob farm team known as the Giannini crew that dealt drugs and robbed banks, bars, and other merchants in Brooklyn and Queens in the 1990s.

Morena, now 45, was deported to Italy after serving a 51 month prison term. Sources say several years ago, as Vincenzo Morena, he made his way into Canada where he "got back into the life" after setting up shop in Hamilton, Ontario, a port city about an hour's drive from Toronto. Sources say he began cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about three years ago.

During the ceremony, Morena is heard thanking the acting capo who conducted the induction ceremony, Damiano Zummo, after being told that "from this day forward, you're a member of the Bonanno family," according to a brief excerpt contained in court papers.

Based on Morena's cooperation, three others, including Gambino soldier Paul Semplice and mob associate Paul Ragusa, a former Giannini crew member who ran with Morena in the 1990s, are awaiting trial on various drug, extortion and weapons charges.

From Anna Sergi's "New York crime families survive and collaborate" article (https://www.academia.edu/36827024/New_Y ... ollaborate):

For example, Project OTremens court filings detail how an undercover agent became a member of the Bonanno family, with law enforcement recording the induction ceremony and the agent later introducing others to the Bonanno group. The initiation occurred in Canada, in the presence of Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, two Calabrian mafia figures from Hamilton, Ontario, whose father Paolo Violi was killed in 1978 by the rival Rizzuto crime family....

From Adrian Humphreys's article "'Congratulations': Undercover agent inducted into Mafia in secret ceremony captured on video by police" (https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/co ... by-police/):

What the gangsters didn’t know is the recruit was an undercover agent cooperating with police on both sides of the border and video and audio of the ceremony was secretly recorded.

The induction, involving at least five men, was allegedly presided over by Damiano Zummo, 44, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family.

“The reason why we’re here is from this day forward, you’re gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family,” Zummo says, according to a transcript of the ceremony.

“It’s already — from this guy, this guy, this guy — everybody approved it, so from this day forward, you’re a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations,” said Zummo.

“Thank you,” the recruit said.

The new member was then formally introduced to other members using the traditional Mafia code of calling a made man a “friend of ours,” and then old the internal hierarchy of he reports to, called a captain or skipper.

“And now I want to introduce you to John. John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, (name of agent deleted), friend of ours with the Bonanno. Now, your captain is (name deleted.)”

“Okay,” said the recruit.

“He’s our skipper. (Nickname of Bonanno member deleted), is our acting… You’re gonna be in our regime,” Zummo allegedly said.

“Okay.”

“You only answer to the Bonanno family.”

From Antonio Nicaso's article "From made-up to ‘made’ men: How myths keep the Mafia’s culture frozen in time" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... re-frozen/):

In November of 2017, police arrested Domenico Violi, a Hamilton father and salesman, on drug-trafficking charges. Mr. Violi’s trial exploded his reputation: Courts heard that he had told an undercover agent that he had been promoted to underboss of the Buffalo-based Todaro crime family – “the No. 2 man in charge of the 'whole thing,’” he said in an audio recording – one of the North American Mafia families often referred to as La Cosa Nostra.

In Mr. [Domenico] Violi’s own words, he and his crime family were taking over the whole city of Hamilton with the bikers. He had participated in an initiation ceremony that took place in a Hamilton hotel in the presence of a representative of the Bonanno crime family from New York, in an effort to solidify relations with American families; in the 1990s, Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, with the support of the Musitano brothers, masterminded the elimination of the Ontario representatives of La Cosa Nostra, creating an independent Canadian Mafia....

In your opinion, are the Caruana- Cuntreras the Toronto/Ontario branch of the " Montreal Group", and are they still active? They are kind of hinted at in the Scoppa book.....

This was whom the Musitanos were supporting, that Violi referred to on wire?

Was it the Caruana-Cuntreras who were really backing the Musitanos, the "Sicilians" who are referred to?


Why would Todaro, who seems to be well respected, allow his soldier to kick up to Rizzuto? Or to be subservient to an authority not his own? Why were the Musitanos hiding behind Vito? Couldnt Todaro have beefed to the Bonnanos? Or is it the Caruanas they would have had to make the appeal? And they wernt hearing it? I'm speculating out loud here......



I'm ultimately asking, if Pat was a made man in Buffalo, why would he be kicking up to, and PROTECTED BY Vito Rizzuto? I'm still a little lost there....

[CabriniGreen]

I'm perplexed Metelsky said in his presentation that, while Vincenzo Morena was in Italy after having been deported from the US, Morena voluntarily contacted the RCMP about becoming a police agent. Shortly after the Project OTremens bust in November 2017, I had theorized on here that Morena was persuaded by the RCMP to become a police agent after his having been arrested in August 2014 in Laval, just north of Montreal -- see the articles to which I've linked below.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOXAFklFd95E ... 5e3qCjN3g/ (search the article for "Morena")

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOVoFzj54JtM ... EibVVeeC8/ (search the article for "police originally listed 29 arrests")

If Metelsky's version of events is correct, you have to wonder whether Morena's arrest in August 2014 was staged by the RCMP.

Did I mishear Metelsky say that Morena had a Brooklyn accent? Even if I misheard, when would Morena have grown up with Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, given Morena was apparently raised in Brooklyn? The brothers grew up in Montreal and then left for Hamilton, along with mother Grazia Luppino and their two sisters, at some point after Paolo Violi was killed in January 1978 -- at the time of the murder, Dom was 11, and Giuseppe was 7.

Did Morena actually ever serve a long sentence before or after 2001, the year he was sentenced in Brooklyn?

Before 2005/2006, was he ever an informant while a Bonanno associate in New York? Did he flip in 2001? Or is this an Internet rumour propagated by people with too much time on their hands?

Please see my notes, below, regarding the above questions and comments. I've also copy-pasted excerpts re: who was apparently present at Morena's induction ceremony in October 2015.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on or shortly before November 16, 2017:

Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one that began with his Brooklyn Federal Court indictment along with Bonanno soldier Baldassare (Baldo) Amato and 20 other Giannini Crew members who were vying for big time roles with the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino families.

After doing time for armed-robbery conspiracies of a bank and a bar, he was deported to Italy where he lived with his wife and son until 2011 when sources say he decided it would be easier for him to sneak back into Canada than the U.S., and he did so after his wife and son entered legally as visitors.

To make his detection as a convicted U.S. felon a trifle harder to spot, he became Vincenzo Morena, instead of the Americanized version he used growing up in Brooklyn. Sources say he flipped and began cooperating with the RCMP after he was arrested in August of 2014 in a suburb of Montreal as part of a coke smuggling ring.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on December 28, 2017:

Top Story Of 2017 Is Videotaped Bonanno Family Induction

It happened two years ago, but the videotaping of a Bonanno crime family induction ceremony in Canada, what acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde last month called "an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement," is Gang Land's Top Story Of The Year for 2017.

As Gang Land reported exclusively last month, the November 2015 initiation was videotaped by an Italian national who grew up in Brooklyn as Vincent (Enzo) Morena and was a member of the violent Queens-based mob farm team known as the Giannini crew that dealt drugs and robbed banks, bars, and other merchants in Brooklyn and Queens in the 1990s.

Morena, now 45, was deported to Italy after serving a 51 month prison term. Sources say several years ago, as Vincenzo Morena, he made his way into Canada where he "got back into the life" after setting up shop in Hamilton, Ontario, a port city about an hour's drive from Toronto. Sources say he began cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about three years ago.

During the ceremony, Morena is heard thanking the acting capo who conducted the induction ceremony, Damiano Zummo, after being told that "from this day forward, you're a member of the Bonanno family," according to a brief excerpt contained in court papers.

Based on Morena's cooperation, three others, including Gambino soldier Paul Semplice and mob associate Paul Ragusa, a former Giannini crew member who ran with Morena in the 1990s, are awaiting trial on various drug, extortion and weapons charges.

From Anna Sergi's "New York crime families survive and collaborate" article (https://www.academia.edu/36827024/New_Y ... ollaborate):

For example, Project OTremens court filings detail how an undercover agent became a member of the Bonanno family, with law enforcement recording the induction ceremony and the agent later introducing others to the Bonanno group. The initiation occurred in Canada, in the presence of Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, two Calabrian mafia figures from Hamilton, Ontario, whose father Paolo Violi was killed in 1978 by the rival Rizzuto crime family....

From Adrian Humphreys's article "'Congratulations': Undercover agent inducted into Mafia in secret ceremony captured on video by police" (https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/co ... by-police/):

What the gangsters didn’t know is the recruit was an undercover agent cooperating with police on both sides of the border and video and audio of the ceremony was secretly recorded.

The induction, involving at least five men, was allegedly presided over by Damiano Zummo, 44, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family.

“The reason why we’re here is from this day forward, you’re gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family,” Zummo says, according to a transcript of the ceremony.

“It’s already — from this guy, this guy, this guy — everybody approved it, so from this day forward, you’re a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations,” said Zummo.

“Thank you,” the recruit said.

The new member was then formally introduced to other members using the traditional Mafia code of calling a made man a “friend of ours,” and then old the internal hierarchy of he reports to, called a captain or skipper.

“And now I want to introduce you to John. John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, (name of agent deleted), friend of ours with the Bonanno. Now, your captain is (name deleted.)”

“Okay,” said the recruit.

“He’s our skipper. (Nickname of Bonanno member deleted), is our acting… You’re gonna be in our regime,” Zummo allegedly said.

“Okay.”

“You only answer to the Bonanno family.”

From Antonio Nicaso's article "From made-up to ‘made’ men: How myths keep the Mafia’s culture frozen in time" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... re-frozen/):

In November of 2017, police arrested Domenico Violi, a Hamilton father and salesman, on drug-trafficking charges. Mr. Violi’s trial exploded his reputation: Courts heard that he had told an undercover agent that he had been promoted to underboss of the Buffalo-based Todaro crime family – “the No. 2 man in charge of the 'whole thing,’” he said in an audio recording – one of the North American Mafia families often referred to as La Cosa Nostra.

In Mr. [Domenico] Violi’s own words, he and his crime family were taking over the whole city of Hamilton with the bikers. He had participated in an initiation ceremony that took place in a Hamilton hotel in the presence of a representative of the Bonanno crime family from New York, in an effort to solidify relations with American families; in the 1990s, Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, with the support of the Musitano brothers, masterminded the elimination of the Ontario representatives of La Cosa Nostra, creating an independent Canadian Mafia....

In your opinion, are the Caruana- Cuntreras the Toronto/Ontario branch of the " Montreal Group", and are they still active? They are kind of hinted at in the Scoppa book.....

This was whom the Musitanos were supporting, that Violi referred to on wire?

Was it the Caruana-Cuntreras who were really backing the Musitanos, the "Sicilians" who are referred to?


Why would Todaro, who seems to be well respected, allow his soldier to kick up to Rizzuto? Or to be subservient to an authority not his own? Why were the Musitanos hiding behind Vito? Couldnt Todaro have beefed to the Bonnanos? Or is it the Caruanas they would have had to make the appeal? And they wernt hearing it? I'm speculating out loud here......



I'm ultimately asking, if Pat was a made man in Buffalo, why would he be kicking up to, and PROTECTED BY Vito Rizzuto? I'm still a little lost there....

To add a little more, I always thought Pat wasnt made, and Vito protected him, like they were independents under the Montreal axis..... but if hes a Buffalo guy through and through, he shoulda been kicking up to the Luppinos..... no wonder they hate them, lol...

[CabriniGreen]

I'm perplexed Metelsky said in his presentation that, while Vincenzo Morena was in Italy after having been deported from the US, Morena voluntarily contacted the RCMP about becoming a police agent. Shortly after the Project OTremens bust in November 2017, I had theorized on here that Morena was persuaded by the RCMP to become a police agent after his having been arrested in August 2014 in Laval, just north of Montreal -- see the articles to which I've linked below.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOXAFklFd95E ... 5e3qCjN3g/ (search the article for "Morena")

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOVoFzj54JtM ... EibVVeeC8/ (search the article for "police originally listed 29 arrests")

If Metelsky's version of events is correct, you have to wonder whether Morena's arrest in August 2014 was staged by the RCMP.

Did I mishear Metelsky say that Morena had a Brooklyn accent? Even if I misheard, when would Morena have grown up with Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, given Morena was apparently raised in Brooklyn? The brothers grew up in Montreal and then left for Hamilton, along with mother Grazia Luppino and their two sisters, at some point after Paolo Violi was killed in January 1978 -- at the time of the murder, Dom was 11, and Giuseppe was 7.

Did Morena actually ever serve a long sentence before or after 2001, the year he was sentenced in Brooklyn?

Before 2005/2006, was he ever an informant while a Bonanno associate in New York? Did he flip in 2001? Or is this an Internet rumour propagated by people with too much time on their hands?

Please see my notes, below, regarding the above questions and comments. I've also copy-pasted excerpts re: who was apparently present at Morena's induction ceremony in October 2015.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on or shortly before November 16, 2017:

Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one that began with his Brooklyn Federal Court indictment along with Bonanno soldier Baldassare (Baldo) Amato and 20 other Giannini Crew members who were vying for big time roles with the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino families.

After doing time for armed-robbery conspiracies of a bank and a bar, he was deported to Italy where he lived with his wife and son until 2011 when sources say he decided it would be easier for him to sneak back into Canada than the U.S., and he did so after his wife and son entered legally as visitors.

To make his detection as a convicted U.S. felon a trifle harder to spot, he became Vincenzo Morena, instead of the Americanized version he used growing up in Brooklyn. Sources say he flipped and began cooperating with the RCMP after he was arrested in August of 2014 in a suburb of Montreal as part of a coke smuggling ring.

From Jerry Capeci's Gang Land article published on December 28, 2017:

Top Story Of 2017 Is Videotaped Bonanno Family Induction

It happened two years ago, but the videotaping of a Bonanno crime family induction ceremony in Canada, what acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde last month called "an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement," is Gang Land's Top Story Of The Year for 2017.

As Gang Land reported exclusively last month, the November 2015 initiation was videotaped by an Italian national who grew up in Brooklyn as Vincent (Enzo) Morena and was a member of the violent Queens-based mob farm team known as the Giannini crew that dealt drugs and robbed banks, bars, and other merchants in Brooklyn and Queens in the 1990s.

Morena, now 45, was deported to Italy after serving a 51 month prison term. Sources say several years ago, as Vincenzo Morena, he made his way into Canada where he "got back into the life" after setting up shop in Hamilton, Ontario, a port city about an hour's drive from Toronto. Sources say he began cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about three years ago.

During the ceremony, Morena is heard thanking the acting capo who conducted the induction ceremony, Damiano Zummo, after being told that "from this day forward, you're a member of the Bonanno family," according to a brief excerpt contained in court papers.

Based on Morena's cooperation, three others, including Gambino soldier Paul Semplice and mob associate Paul Ragusa, a former Giannini crew member who ran with Morena in the 1990s, are awaiting trial on various drug, extortion and weapons charges.

From Anna Sergi's "New York crime families survive and collaborate" article (https://www.academia.edu/36827024/New_Y ... ollaborate):

For example, Project OTremens court filings detail how an undercover agent became a member of the Bonanno family, with law enforcement recording the induction ceremony and the agent later introducing others to the Bonanno group. The initiation occurred in Canada, in the presence of Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, two Calabrian mafia figures from Hamilton, Ontario, whose father Paolo Violi was killed in 1978 by the rival Rizzuto crime family....

From Adrian Humphreys's article "'Congratulations': Undercover agent inducted into Mafia in secret ceremony captured on video by police" (https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/co ... by-police/):

What the gangsters didn’t know is the recruit was an undercover agent cooperating with police on both sides of the border and video and audio of the ceremony was secretly recorded.

The induction, involving at least five men, was allegedly presided over by Damiano Zummo, 44, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family.

“The reason why we’re here is from this day forward, you’re gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family,” Zummo says, according to a transcript of the ceremony.

“It’s already — from this guy, this guy, this guy — everybody approved it, so from this day forward, you’re a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations,” said Zummo.

“Thank you,” the recruit said.

The new member was then formally introduced to other members using the traditional Mafia code of calling a made man a “friend of ours,” and then old the internal hierarchy of he reports to, called a captain or skipper.

“And now I want to introduce you to John. John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, (name of agent deleted), friend of ours with the Bonanno. Now, your captain is (name deleted.)”

“Okay,” said the recruit.

“He’s our skipper. (Nickname of Bonanno member deleted), is our acting… You’re gonna be in our regime,” Zummo allegedly said.

“Okay.”

“You only answer to the Bonanno family.”

From Antonio Nicaso's article "From made-up to ‘made’ men: How myths keep the Mafia’s culture frozen in time" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... re-frozen/):

In November of 2017, police arrested Domenico Violi, a Hamilton father and salesman, on drug-trafficking charges. Mr. Violi’s trial exploded his reputation: Courts heard that he had told an undercover agent that he had been promoted to underboss of the Buffalo-based Todaro crime family – “the No. 2 man in charge of the 'whole thing,’” he said in an audio recording – one of the North American Mafia families often referred to as La Cosa Nostra.

In Mr. [Domenico] Violi’s own words, he and his crime family were taking over the whole city of Hamilton with the bikers. He had participated in an initiation ceremony that took place in a Hamilton hotel in the presence of a representative of the Bonanno crime family from New York, in an effort to solidify relations with American families; in the 1990s, Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, with the support of the Musitano brothers, masterminded the elimination of the Ontario representatives of La Cosa Nostra, creating an independent Canadian Mafia....

In your opinion, are the Caruana- Cuntreras the Toronto/Ontario branch of the " Montreal Group", and are they still active? They are kind of hinted at in the Scoppa book.....

This was whom the Musitanos were supporting, that Violi referred to on wire?

Was it the Caruana-Cuntreras who were really backing the Musitanos, the "Sicilians" who are referred to?


Why would Todaro, who seems to be well respected, allow his soldier to kick up to Rizzuto? Or to be subservient to an authority not his own? Why were the Musitanos hiding behind Vito? Couldnt Todaro have beefed to the Bonnanos? Or is it the Caruanas they would have had to make the appeal? And they wernt hearing it? I'm speculating out loud here......



I'm ultimately asking, if Pat was a made man in Buffalo, why would he be kicking up to, and PROTECTED BY Vito Rizzuto? I'm still a little lost there....

To add a little more, I always thought Pat wasnt made, and Vito protected him, like they were independents under the Montreal axis..... but if hes a Buffalo guy through and through, he shoulda been kicking up to the Luppinos..... no wonder they hate them, lol...

More speculation here.... maybe this was the appeal the Hamilton people were making to Montagna....

Maybe Montagna was making it right, and the ceremony, operations with Zummo were the continuation of this? A way of healing the decades old rift?

[TommyNoto]

That video was excellent, great find

It and the Buffalo article were almost tailor made for this thread

Nice job by B. who untangled a lot of this. Crazy how on point you seem to have been .

[CabriniGreen]

That video was excellent, great find

It and the Buffalo article were almost tailor made for this thread

Nice job by B. who untangled a lot of this. Crazy how on point you seem to have been .

In fairness.. Nickel has done much of the legwork....

And we still have a ways to go... so many unanswered questions....

[CabriniGreen]

The back n forth between Nickel n Gohnjotti is legendary, lol

[CabriniGreen]

A question just occurred to me.... as a Cosa Nostra underboss, did Dom Violi defacto outrank every LCN guy in Canada? Even if only technically?

Just a thought......

[Moscone65]

Caruana cuntrera are still active in Toronto area. They were having a beef a few years back because they were ripped off by the commissos.

[Moscone65]

For millions in a drug deal

[Newyorkempire]

Any known retaliation for that rip off?

[johnny_scootch]

Why would Todaro, who seems to be well respected, allow his soldier to kick up to Rizzuto? Or to be subservient to an authority not his own? Why were the Musitanos hiding behind Vito? Couldnt Todaro have beefed to the Bonnanos? Or is it the Caruanas they would have had to make the appeal? And they wernt hearing it? I'm speculating out loud here......



I'm ultimately asking, if Pat was a made man in Buffalo, why would he be kicking up to, and PROTECTED BY Vito Rizzuto? I'm still a little lost there....

If the Musitano’s were Buffalo members all that stuff about them being protected by and kicking up to the Rizzuto’s is completely false.