Toronto on brink of a mob war, Italy warns
Adrian Humphreys
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015
Mobsters around Toronto are on the brink of armed warfare in a brewing feud between some of the world’s most powerful and wealthiest gangster clans, according to wiretaps secretly recorded in Italy.
Friction between Mafia families in Canada has already triggered one brazen murder, an unsolved shooting last year outside a café in Woodbridge, north of Toronto, authorities in Italy warn after listening to private conversations between an accused mafioso who returned to Italy from Toronto.
The allegations on the inner workings of Ontario-based mob families are revealed in documents prepared by prosecutors in Italy in a sweeping anti-Mafia case targeting the “elite” of the underworld.
Last month, dozens of accused mobsters were arrested in Europe as part of Operation Acero-Krupy — the very name demonstrating the Canadian connection: acero is Italian for “maple,” while Krupy is a purposeful misspelling of the name of a family under investigation.
Prosecutors claim hidden microphones captured conversations between two men: Vincenzo Crupi, 50, who had recently returned to Italy from Canada, and his brother-in-law, Vincenzo Macri, 50.
“Crupi, coming from Canada, provided a detailed report to Vincenzo Macri about the outcome of his meetings in Canada with members at the top of the ’Ndrangheta operating in that territory,” prosecutors wrote, summarizing their allegations, translated from Italian by National Post.
(The ’Ndrangheta is the proper name of the Mafia that formed in Italy’s region of Calabria.)
The conversations, authorities say, “seriously highlight the danger of an escalation of an armed conflict within the coterie of ’Ndrangheta clans, operating for a long time in Canadian territory … particularly among the Coluccio and the Figliomeni (clans).”
A transcription of the actual words the men spoke was not publicly released and the evidence has not yet been tested in court. Arrest warrants for both were issued on Sept. 28 in Italy as part of the Acero-Krupy probe.
Inter-clan friction in Canada sharply increased after the 2014 murder of Carmine Verduci, the prosecutors say. Verduci, 56, was an important mobster in the Toronto area, described as a transatlantic go-between for gangsters in Italy and Canada, until he was shot dead outside Regina Sports Café in Woodbridge in April 2014.
The prosecution documents claim Crupi also spoke about Verduci’s unsolved murder, calling it an “assassination,” and alleging it was “planned and determined” by two brothers from Vaughan, Ont., who are considered fugitives in Italy for Mafia association.
The information from Italy has been shared with Canadian law enforcement, sources in both countries say.
Requests for comment from York Regional Police and the RCMP’s anti-organized crime unit went unanswered Tuesday.
There would be hurdles faced by Canadian police in using the wiretaps to lay charges in the murder, however, especially if the legitimacy of the information was challenged in court. Judicial authorization for a wiretap is far easier for police to obtain in Italy than in Canada.
On the streets of Toronto and north of the city in Vaughan, where many of the suspected mobsters live and work, police say there is no palpable sense a war is brewing.
“Whatever the problem was between these groups, it looks like, somehow, it’s may have been worked out,” said an officer familiar with local ’Ndrangheta figures.
“It looks like business as usual with these groups,” he added, asking his name not be used as he is not authoritized to comment on the cases. In the 18 months since Verduci’s slaying, police are not aware of any dramatic retaliation.
Another police investigator said a war would be so bad for business, cooler heads will likely prevail.
“There are too many important people who would lose money if there was a shooting war. They have to have some cohesion, they have to show strength to stave off competition from (mobsters based in) Montreal.”
However, one officer mused, it just might be a little “too quiet.”
“People seem to be getting along, everyone is shaking hands and kissing each other. It is either really good or really bad — it is sometimes difficult to tell.”
Operation Acero-Krupy began when police in Italy eavesdropped on conversations between two other men with close ties to Canada.
Giuseppe Coluccio, 49, and Antonio Coluccio, 46, are both former residents of Ontario. The older brother was deported in 2008 and the younger left under pressure from immigration authorities in 2010.
The documents allege Giuseppe is now the boss of the globally powerful Coluccio clan.
The ’Ndrangheta is built on a confederacy of like-minded clans, each relying on family bonds. It is similar, but separate from the better-known Mafia of Sicily, called Cosa Nostra. Police around the world say the ’Ndrangheta has become the most dangerous and powerful Italian crime group.
A national risk assessment by the RCMP recently identified the ’Ndrangheta in Canada as a priority threat.
As reported by the Post in 2010, Italian authorities said there were at least seven primary ’Ndrangheta clans in the Toronto area and the organization had climbed “to the top of the criminal world,” by establishing a “continuous flow of cocaine.”
In 2010, prosecutors said there was “an unbreakable umbilical cord” between the ’Ndrangheta in Canada and in Italy.
An Italian government official familiar with the latest case said Canada and Italy continue to work closely in investigating mobsters with ties to both countries.
“It is not only a fight for Italy against this group, but a fight at an international level. It is important to share information and work together,” the official said.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.h ... taly-warns
Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity
Moderator: Capos
Italy: Toronto on brink of mob war
All roads lead to New York.
Re: Italy: Toronto on brink of mob war
Thanks to antimafia for posting this...
"Firebombing north of Toronto adds urgency to warnings of brewing mob war in city"
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.h ... ar-in-city
"Toronto police identify Playfair Ave. shooting victim as Rocco Zito"
http://on.thestar.com/1WTvvrL
"Firebombing north of Toronto adds urgency to warnings of brewing mob war in city"
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.h ... ar-in-city
"Toronto police identify Playfair Ave. shooting victim as Rocco Zito"
http://on.thestar.com/1WTvvrL
All roads lead to New York.
Re: Italy: Toronto on brink of mob war
Ontario key place for organized crime to transform into legitimate businesses
BY ROB LAMBERTI, SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO SUN
May 21, 2016
Ontario’s underworld seems dormant as Quebec shows rumblings for more Mob violence.
But not all is quiet in Ontario, as the province is a key place for organized crime to transform into legitimate, lucrative businesses.
A southern Ontario police source who’s kept tabs on organized crime figures says he’s watched men who have worked their way up, from being poor, violent gangsters involved in various criminal trades such as drugs, cargo thefts, extortions and loan sharking, and morphing into polite, well-polished high-end auto and clothes retailers and financiers.
It’s getting harder for law enforcement to follow the dirty money, adds Mafia expert Antonio Nicaso, as reams of dirty money are parked offshore and used as collateral in legitimate businesses.
“The next step, you can sponsor, you can give money to politicians, you can give to charity, you can do fundraising ... and you build a social presence,” he says. “Who can challenge someone with suspicious Mafia past affiliations when he is involved with charity, fundraising events.
“In Canada, we have a long list of people that started in a very strange way ... and then they become big shots in the economy and financial world,” Nicaso says.
“Who can challenge them?” he asks.
Nevertheless that veneer of respectability fails to hide some who haven’t let go of the money the underworld promises.
“When you’ve started in a life of crime and you have a criminal enterprise that’s generating $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a week, I don’t give a shit what anyone says, you’re not going to turn it off,” the police source said. “If you’ve been making it for 10, 12, 14 years, why would you stop?
“All they do is insulate themselves. What are (their) kids going to do? Are they going to take over (their) legitimate businesses? Absolutely. Are they going to take over his criminal enterprises? Who knows what they’re going to do?”
The source says the media image of the thug-like mobster doesn’t always match the reality of an organized crime leader.
“Because if you look at the modern-day Mob or members of organized crime, how they are in Europe and how they evolved, the modern day criminal is someone who is highly educated, has a professional career and masks his criminal enterprise behind his professional public life,” the source said.
Projects Magot and Mastiff last year revealed connections between the Hells Angels, Quebec street gangs and the Rizzuto crime family. The source noted many in law enforcement never believed Leonardo Rizzuto, son of the late Montreal Mob boss Vito, would play a role in his father’s criminal enterprise because he’s a lawyer. Yet Quebec police arrested him and Stefano Sollecito, a son of long-time Rizzuto clan supporter Rocco, alleging they are leaders of the crime family and charging them with drug- and gangsterism-related charges. Those charges have yet to be proven in court and the accused have said nothing publicly about those charges.
Some ‘Ndrangheta leaders take offence when it’s suggested they can only succeed as drug dealers, loan sharks or thieves, the source said.
But, the officer said, the source of their money concerns police who increasingly feel they can do little to stop the alchemy of cleansing dirty money.
“It’s the whole idea of legitimization,” the source said. “They come here, they develop a criminal enterprise, they work with cash, they withhold taxes, they don’t declare proper income and they start making so much money, they get involved with accountants and lawyers.”
The Mob has billions at its disposal.
The 2008 annual report on the Calabrian crime group by an Italian parliamentary committee said one can’t understand “the strength of the ‘Ndrangheta, its diffusion, its roots in the region and the expansion of its activities to the north (in Italy) and abroad, if you do not grasp in depth the nature of (its) great economic and criminal holdings.”
The Italian government manages ‘Ndrangheta portfolios involving billions of euros, thousands of companies and tens of thousands of properties. Italian authorities, for example, seized last July about two billion euros in cash plus assets controlled by one alleged ‘Ndrangheta group that police say laundered money through gambling operations.
Most of the clans have strong family and business ties to southern Ontario. The Canadian government estimates between $5 billion and $15 billion are laundered annually in Canada by all crime groups, part of a $1 trillion global industry.
“They’re building plazas, buying car dealerships, they’re business people,” the police source said of Ontario’s ‘Ndrangheta. “They sit down and have business meetings. There does come a time when it’s not about holding a gun and robbing somebody.”
•••
Organized crime in Ontario is too successful to stay illegal.
Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission revealed the intertwined relationships are between organized crime, business and politics and it would be folly not to expect similar links in Ontario.
“When you think of mafia, you can’t have the mafia without the politician who helps out,” says mafia expert Antonio Nicaso. “There is politics without mafia, there is corruption without mafia, but there is no mafia without politics, there is no mafia without corruption.”
Nicaso says Ontario is a safe haven for criminal organizations. While moving large sums of money and keeping low profiles, people on the whole aren’t afraid or perceive a problem — a perfect scenario to conduct business.
“The idea that there are no social alarms, no social issues, no one can say, ‘We have a problem with organized crime,’” Nicaso says. “Organized crime is not on the political agenda in Ontario, it’s not an issue.
“Inaction helps organized crime to flourish,” he adds.
Meanwhile, animosity between the crime groups in Ontario and Quebec festers as accounts remain to be settled in ongoing vendettas, a police source said.
“There are no surprises,” the source said. “They know exactly who killed what, who (they) did it for and for what reasons.
“If you’re going to keep control of the criminal enterprise, there are certain things that have to be done, it’s worth too much money.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/21/on ... businesses
BY ROB LAMBERTI, SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO SUN
May 21, 2016
Ontario’s underworld seems dormant as Quebec shows rumblings for more Mob violence.
But not all is quiet in Ontario, as the province is a key place for organized crime to transform into legitimate, lucrative businesses.
A southern Ontario police source who’s kept tabs on organized crime figures says he’s watched men who have worked their way up, from being poor, violent gangsters involved in various criminal trades such as drugs, cargo thefts, extortions and loan sharking, and morphing into polite, well-polished high-end auto and clothes retailers and financiers.
It’s getting harder for law enforcement to follow the dirty money, adds Mafia expert Antonio Nicaso, as reams of dirty money are parked offshore and used as collateral in legitimate businesses.
“The next step, you can sponsor, you can give money to politicians, you can give to charity, you can do fundraising ... and you build a social presence,” he says. “Who can challenge someone with suspicious Mafia past affiliations when he is involved with charity, fundraising events.
“In Canada, we have a long list of people that started in a very strange way ... and then they become big shots in the economy and financial world,” Nicaso says.
“Who can challenge them?” he asks.
Nevertheless that veneer of respectability fails to hide some who haven’t let go of the money the underworld promises.
“When you’ve started in a life of crime and you have a criminal enterprise that’s generating $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a week, I don’t give a shit what anyone says, you’re not going to turn it off,” the police source said. “If you’ve been making it for 10, 12, 14 years, why would you stop?
“All they do is insulate themselves. What are (their) kids going to do? Are they going to take over (their) legitimate businesses? Absolutely. Are they going to take over his criminal enterprises? Who knows what they’re going to do?”
The source says the media image of the thug-like mobster doesn’t always match the reality of an organized crime leader.
“Because if you look at the modern-day Mob or members of organized crime, how they are in Europe and how they evolved, the modern day criminal is someone who is highly educated, has a professional career and masks his criminal enterprise behind his professional public life,” the source said.
Projects Magot and Mastiff last year revealed connections between the Hells Angels, Quebec street gangs and the Rizzuto crime family. The source noted many in law enforcement never believed Leonardo Rizzuto, son of the late Montreal Mob boss Vito, would play a role in his father’s criminal enterprise because he’s a lawyer. Yet Quebec police arrested him and Stefano Sollecito, a son of long-time Rizzuto clan supporter Rocco, alleging they are leaders of the crime family and charging them with drug- and gangsterism-related charges. Those charges have yet to be proven in court and the accused have said nothing publicly about those charges.
Some ‘Ndrangheta leaders take offence when it’s suggested they can only succeed as drug dealers, loan sharks or thieves, the source said.
But, the officer said, the source of their money concerns police who increasingly feel they can do little to stop the alchemy of cleansing dirty money.
“It’s the whole idea of legitimization,” the source said. “They come here, they develop a criminal enterprise, they work with cash, they withhold taxes, they don’t declare proper income and they start making so much money, they get involved with accountants and lawyers.”
The Mob has billions at its disposal.
The 2008 annual report on the Calabrian crime group by an Italian parliamentary committee said one can’t understand “the strength of the ‘Ndrangheta, its diffusion, its roots in the region and the expansion of its activities to the north (in Italy) and abroad, if you do not grasp in depth the nature of (its) great economic and criminal holdings.”
The Italian government manages ‘Ndrangheta portfolios involving billions of euros, thousands of companies and tens of thousands of properties. Italian authorities, for example, seized last July about two billion euros in cash plus assets controlled by one alleged ‘Ndrangheta group that police say laundered money through gambling operations.
Most of the clans have strong family and business ties to southern Ontario. The Canadian government estimates between $5 billion and $15 billion are laundered annually in Canada by all crime groups, part of a $1 trillion global industry.
“They’re building plazas, buying car dealerships, they’re business people,” the police source said of Ontario’s ‘Ndrangheta. “They sit down and have business meetings. There does come a time when it’s not about holding a gun and robbing somebody.”
•••
Organized crime in Ontario is too successful to stay illegal.
Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission revealed the intertwined relationships are between organized crime, business and politics and it would be folly not to expect similar links in Ontario.
“When you think of mafia, you can’t have the mafia without the politician who helps out,” says mafia expert Antonio Nicaso. “There is politics without mafia, there is corruption without mafia, but there is no mafia without politics, there is no mafia without corruption.”
Nicaso says Ontario is a safe haven for criminal organizations. While moving large sums of money and keeping low profiles, people on the whole aren’t afraid or perceive a problem — a perfect scenario to conduct business.
“The idea that there are no social alarms, no social issues, no one can say, ‘We have a problem with organized crime,’” Nicaso says. “Organized crime is not on the political agenda in Ontario, it’s not an issue.
“Inaction helps organized crime to flourish,” he adds.
Meanwhile, animosity between the crime groups in Ontario and Quebec festers as accounts remain to be settled in ongoing vendettas, a police source said.
“There are no surprises,” the source said. “They know exactly who killed what, who (they) did it for and for what reasons.
“If you’re going to keep control of the criminal enterprise, there are certain things that have to be done, it’s worth too much money.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/21/on ... businesses
All roads lead to New York.
-
Laurentian
- Sergeant Of Arms
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:44 am
- Location: Québec, Canada.
Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity
Here is a very good summary on the history of the presence and activities of the 'Ndrangheta in Ontario by Scott Paulseth :
https://panamericancrime.wordpress.com/ ... an-update/
https://panamericancrime.wordpress.com/ ... an-update/
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Just read a book on them in Australia.
-
Laurentian
- Sergeant Of Arms
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:44 am
- Location: Québec, Canada.
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
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
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... trade.html
-
Laurentian
- Sergeant Of Arms
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:44 am
- Location: Québec, Canada.
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Thank you very much UTC!UTC wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:24 pm 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
-
SonnyBlackstein
- Filthy Few
- Posts: 7588
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:21 am
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Fantastic article.Laurentian wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:42 pm Here is a very good summary on the history of the presence and activities of the 'Ndrangheta in Ontario by Scott Paulseth :
https://panamericancrime.wordpress.com/ ... an-update/
Appreciated.
Don't give me your f***ing Manson lamps.
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Not sure whether this is the right thread in which to post a link to Adrian Humphreys's latest article about Tito Figliomeni--Humphreys wrote an article about him yesterday too, as Figliomeni was recently arrested after the plane he was on, which had departed from the main airport in the Toronto area, landed at the Fiumicino airport in Rome.
Humphreys's latest article explains some of the tensions between the various 'ndrine in the GTA Siderno Group without naming the factions.
"Fugitive mobster who hid in Canada was cousin of murder victim in brazen 2015 café attack"
http://nationalpost.com/wcm/f2980233-58 ... 92a13eca3a
Humphreys's latest article explains some of the tensions between the various 'ndrine in the GTA Siderno Group without naming the factions.
"Fugitive mobster who hid in Canada was cousin of murder victim in brazen 2015 café attack"
http://nationalpost.com/wcm/f2980233-58 ... 92a13eca3a
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Peter Edwards's latest article is in relation to the Project OPhoenix investigation that culminated in June 2015.
"Toronto court hears testimony on inner workings of ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... group.html
"Toronto court hears testimony on inner workings of ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... group.html
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Cross-posting because of the bombshell revelation during the testimony of Carmine Guido--not his real name--in the case against Giuseppe Ursino and Chris Dracea, who were charged in the Project OPhoenix investigation that targeted members and associates of the GTA Siderno Group.antimafia wrote: ↑Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:33 pm Peter Edwards's latest article is in relation to the Project OPhoenix investigation that culminated in June 2015.
"Toronto court hears testimony on inner workings of ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... group.html
Last week, the witness also testified that in 2004, before the infamous California Sandwiches shooting in Toronto, Salvatore Calautti--killed in 2013--wanted Peter Scarcella murdered, with planning having taken place and items gathered for the execution of the plan.
So now there may be yet another motive for Calautti's 2013 murder: Scarcella's revenge for the murder attempt that almost happened but never did. (Scarcella was released from prison in 2012.)
Link to Peter Edwards's second article about Carmine Guido's testimony:
"Toronto court hears testimony from mob enforcer in cocaine trafficking case"
https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2018 ... -case.html
-
SonnyBlackstein
- Filthy Few
- Posts: 7588
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:21 am
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Paid $2.4 mil by the G whilst a CI. Two and change years.antimafia wrote: ↑Sun Mar 25, 2018 9:39 pmCross-posting because of the bombshell revelation during the testimony of Carmine Guido--not his real name--in the case against Giuseppe Ursino and Chris Dracea, who were charged in the Project OPhoenix investigation that targeted members and associates of the GTA Siderno Group.antimafia wrote: ↑Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:33 pm Peter Edwards's latest article is in relation to the Project OPhoenix investigation that culminated in June 2015.
"Toronto court hears testimony on inner workings of ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... group.html
Last week, the witness also testified that in 2004, before the infamous California Sandwiches shooting in Toronto, Salvatore Calautti--killed in 2013--wanted Peter Scarcella murdered, with planning having taken place and items gathered for the execution of the plan.
So now there may be yet another motive for Calautti's 2013 murder: Scarcella's revenge for the murder attempt that almost happened but never did. (Scarcella was released from prison in 2012.)
Link to Peter Edwards's second article about Carmine Guido's testimony:
"Toronto court hears testimony from mob enforcer in cocaine trafficking case"
https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2018 ... -case.html
Beyond disgusting.
Appreciate the article AM.
Don't give me your f***ing Manson lamps.
Re: The 'Ndrangheta in Ontario
Cross-posting again.
Link to Peter Edwards's article below is one of the best stories I've read all year. He is continuing to report on the testimony provided by police agent Carmine Guido.
"Court hears details of mob killings in secret recordings"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... dings.html
Link to Peter Edwards's article below is one of the best stories I've read all year. He is continuing to report on the testimony provided by police agent Carmine Guido.
"Court hears details of mob killings in secret recordings"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... dings.html