Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[Newyorkempire]

Prosecutors were trying to tie him to Bongiovanni and they had questioned him at great length about other mobsters in Buffalo Dan Herbeck reported.

[NickleCity]

I should mention that the defense indicates they don’t have any evidence in the discovery material that they have received. From what I’ve read the defense has been buried in discovery material - ie material from multiple decades long investigations. The question is: Has the prosecution just buried the defense with material so the defense can’t find the relevant material or have they buried them because they don’t really have relevant evidence.

[antimafia]

Cross-posting -- see viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8471&p=247755#p247755.

Alleged gangster’s Oakville paradise: The undercover ruse
https://www.insidehalton.com/opinion-st ... over-ruse/

Excerpt:

[Sukhvir] Deo frequently communicated with a contact in Los Angeles he referred to by the nickname of — “the broker” — who travelled frequently between Toronto and Los Angeles. Police believed the “broker” was the conduit between Deo and the cartel who brokered money and cocaine shipments into Canada.

Deo was also seen meeting with another person of interest — Dean Costanza. The DNRs confirmed they were also communicating over the phone. The surveillance team observed a lot of activity, which included Deo moving large duffel bags and suitcases around the Greater Toronto Area.

“Dean Costanza was involved in drug deals and well known to police, specifically in the world of drug investigations,” said John Mans, a retired detective sergeant, formerly in charge of Halton’s intelligence unit.

As reported earlier by the Toronto Star, a project from Niagara region — dubbed Project Ink — involved a gang with connectivity to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and the importation of cocaine into Canada in 2012. Canadian court documents from that project revealed Nick Nero, the gang’s leader, had issued a murder contract on Dean Costanza. Nero was later convicted of cocaine importation and first-degree murder — for a different homicide.

Police believe Deo’s relocation to Ontario in 2013, after Nero’s incarceration, was no coincidence. Deo came to Oakville to fill the void left by the damage Project Ink inflicted in 2012.

Omar Nadim, a former Halton drug and intelligence sergeant who retired in 2022, confirmed the underworld connectivity of transnational organized crime is multilayered and Deo was in the centre of it all.

“Dean Costanza and Joe Catroppa used to live together in Halton,” said Nadim. Police confirmed they (Costanza and Catroppa) had previous ties to the Musitano crime family in Hamilton — namely mobster brothers Pat and Angelo.

All four men, Costanza, Catroppa and the Musitano brothers, have since been murdered — all shot to death. Two of the homicides are unsolved murders in the region of Halton.

[Newyorkempire]

Cross-posting -- see viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8471&p=247755#p247755.

Alleged gangster’s Oakville paradise: The undercover ruse
https://www.insidehalton.com/opinion-st ... over-ruse/

Excerpt:

[Sukhvir] Deo frequently communicated with a contact in Los Angeles he referred to by the nickname of — “the broker” — who travelled frequently between Toronto and Los Angeles. Police believed the “broker” was the conduit between Deo and the cartel who brokered money and cocaine shipments into Canada.

Deo was also seen meeting with another person of interest — Dean Costanza. The DNRs confirmed they were also communicating over the phone. The surveillance team observed a lot of activity, which included Deo moving large duffel bags and suitcases around the Greater Toronto Area.

“Dean Costanza was involved in drug deals and well known to police, specifically in the world of drug investigations,” said John Mans, a retired detective sergeant, formerly in charge of Halton’s intelligence unit.

As reported earlier by the Toronto Star, a project from Niagara region — dubbed Project Ink — involved a gang with connectivity to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and the importation of cocaine into Canada in 2012. Canadian court documents from that project revealed Nick Nero, the gang’s leader, had issued a murder contract on Dean Costanza. Nero was later convicted of cocaine importation and first-degree murder — for a different homicide.

Police believe Deo’s relocation to Ontario in 2013, after Nero’s incarceration, was no coincidence. Deo came to Oakville to fill the void left by the damage Project Ink inflicted in 2012.

Omar Nadim, a former Halton drug and intelligence sergeant who retired in 2022, confirmed the underworld connectivity of transnational organized crime is multilayered and Deo was in the centre of it all.

“Dean Costanza and Joe Catroppa used to live together in Halton,” said Nadim. Police confirmed they (Costanza and Catroppa) had previous ties to the Musitano crime family in Hamilton — namely mobster brothers Pat and Angelo.

All four men, Costanza, Catroppa and the Musitano brothers, have since been murdered — all shot to death. Two of the homicides are unsolved murders in the region of Halton.

Have to consider that Catroppa and Costanzas murders were based in the fact Musitano was trying to collect tribute from Nero

[antimafia]

^^^^
It's apparent that you've read The Wolfpack book by Peter Edwards and Luis Nájera. After reading Metelsky's article published Friday, what might be easy to forget is that Catroppa was mentioned a couple of times in the book as having become a Wolfpack enemy, i.e., no longer an ally to Nick Nero.

You'll recall from the book that Costanza's murder in 2017 occurred 5 years after a hit was first put on him. I know a few of the unpublished details about the threat in Ontario that was made to Catroppa's life before he fled to Cancún, where he was eventually killed, but I had no idea he and Costanza were once housemates; so now the details of the threat against Catroppa's life make more sense to me.

I'm thinking that the murders of Costanza, Catroppa, Antonio Fiorda, and Deo himself could have all been ordered by Mexicans supplying cocaine into Ontario -- or at least some of the murders were, as Fiorda's was possibly at the hands of the Hells (who in turn might have been pushed by the Mexicans to take care of Fiorda for skimming loads). (Recall that Catroppa was walking alongside Fiorda when the latter was gunned down in the parking lot outside Via Allegro in the west end of Toronto.)

Then there are these gems from the book about two apparently significant mob players whose "formal" mafia affiliation is either unknown, unrecognized by the American LCN, or nonexistent (I like Anna Sergi's use of the word "freelancers," in her recent article, to describe some of the guys in this province):

from ch. 21, "Yellow Sticky Note":
Pat Musitano was livid at Martino Caputo for not keeping an eye on his various rackets and helping out his wife while he was in prison, and he wasn't one to let a grudge quietly die.

from ch. 8, "Greed":
When he came up for parole, Scarcella proposed that he be transferred to a halfway house in the St. Catharines area--conveniently, Nick Nero's neck of the woods. Authorities sensed that something criminal was in the works and balked.

Bienvenue en Ontario !

[Newyorkempire]

Possible Costanza was used as bait for Fiorda by Musitano to attack the Commissos (he knew of hit put out by Remo for many decades) or legitimately close to Fiorda due to cocaine and used as a setup to spare his own life but then double crossed by the bikers or Mexicans?

Pretty sure Clary double crossed everyone again too like he did in the 90s. Guy is a politician. Have to look at Avignone in the same light. The shooters had a chance to essentially wipe out any Musitano remnants and they survived somehow. Whether he wrote rat on his own garage or someone else did is another question.

[NickleCity]

Order of protection in the Gerace/Bongiovanni case:













Additionally the court is allowing the government to redact a great portion of the search warrant info the defense wanted disclosed. See: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... .349.0.pdf

[NickleCity]

State police sergeant tipped off owners of illegal online gambling biz about probe, feds say
Charlie Specht Jan 9, 2023

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crim ... e43dd7c87d

It will be interesting to see if the names of the business owners who were being investigated will come out. Their business were in Chili near Rochester.

[Newyorkempire]

State police sergeant tipped off owners of illegal online gambling biz about probe, feds say
Charlie Specht Jan 9, 2023

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crim ... e43dd7c87d

It will be interesting to see if the names of the business owners who were being investigated will come out. Their business were in Chili near Rochester.

Huge amount of bettors really for one/two book(s)

[NickleCity]

^^^^
Here is a link to the criminal complaint related to the story above: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66 ... -v-loewke/

Seems to me there was at least 1 and maybe two Vin Makazians in the NYS police creatively trying to cover their vig--LOL.

[NickleCity]

Prosecutor voices concern for safety of witnesses in Buffalo trial involving organized crime allegations
Dan Herbeck Jan 7, 2023

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/pros ... 43bfe.html

[NickleCity]

Prosecutors can keep witnesses secret – for now – in bribery case tied to organized crime
Mike McAndrew Jan 11, 2023

"U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. ruled Monday that prosecutors may identify some witnesses only as "protected witness" because of concerns about their safety until May 10, and perhaps beyond then."

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crim ... 6dfae.html

[NickleCity]

One of the governments objections to Gerace's defense motion to modify the conditions of his release.



See: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... .350.0.pdf

[antimafia]

The Toronto connection to the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most-wanted Mafia godfather
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/0 ... ather.html

[antimafia]

^^^^
In case you hit a paywall:

https://pressreader.com/article/281809993010143