Interesting. Looking forward to it if you are willing to keep going!CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:58 pmNah, its explained in the next Chapter, it came from the top...Etna wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:12 pm All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.
Andrew Scoppa
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
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I am, I had a couple of mishaps with Chapter 5, my post got deleted a couple times...Etna wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 7:03 pmInteresting. Looking forward to it if you are willing to keep going!CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:58 pmNah, its explained in the next Chapter, it came from the top...Etna wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:12 pm All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.
Re: Andrew Scoppa
Gotcha. Thank for clearing that up so quickly.CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:57 pmNo, Scoppa has VITO, owing Gervasi 300k....Tonyd621 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 3:55 pmHow do you become a senior in the Rizzuto clan if he owed Vito $300k? I mean I get he took the book over ; what he was so fearsome that Vito allowed him to take the book over without paying his debts? How could nobody liked Paolo? Because everyone owed him money? Whats the reason?CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:08 am Chapter 5: The Book
• Seguin writes, " Before meeting Scoppa, I never understood that it always comes back to the famous "Book".
At one point, while asking about a mafioso, Scoppa said, "Yes, he has 5% of the Book". Scoppa told Seguin, " The Book is everything, if you have the Book, then you have the money". But there is a good chance you will get killed.
Seguin then understood the importance of the" Book".
At every meeting, Scoppa emphasized the importance of the Book.
• Through various clues Scoppa had given about his financial situation, Seguin understood Scoppa to be worth 30 million. Most of his legit income came from his ATM machines, and a trash company he had with his brother Roberto. Couldnt find the name of the trash company. Scoppa told Seguin he could double his worth very five years.
• Scoppa was VERY low key. He had a car rental business, and every car looked used. His clothes were very basic, and his house was plain apparently, it was in Ile Bizard.
• Despite all his money, Scoppa coveted the Book. He said originally Paolo Gervasi had it. He said no one liked him, but everyone owed him money.
From Chapter 5
Everyone and everything was recorded in a book. The name stuck. It is a register that includes all loans and illegal sports betting.
Bets on sports like soccer, football, hockey, basketball, boxing… How much is it worth? Between $ 15 and $ 20 million per year. Even 25 million.
“The Book is now administered on the Internet and by several 'agents'. Let's say you're an agent. You have your guys, on Friday you send in your betting list and the stake money.
Let's say one of them makes a bet: he sends me a message to let me know he's betting so much on this team for that game. And so on. Then everything is compiled and saved.
I have control over everything that happens. I have all the names or numbers of the bettors, all their bets and the money in play. Bettors must notify me of their bets and send me their stake money.
So at the end of the week I know who won, who lost. I have a record of what a bettor has already paid me and I can say, “Hey, that guy lost so much, where's the money? Or this guy won, we owe him so… ”Let's say he takes a gamble with you, but he didn't pay: I'll find out.
So your agents need to keep up to date on everyone who owes money and who is owed money. It takes organization to manage it all. And it's pretty well controlled.
Agents pocket a percentage of the amounts wagered and they are responsible for administering those wagers, which is owed to the winners, the amounts that the losers have to pay. Basically, it's accounting. It's a bit like an underground Loto-Québec. “It's a lot less risky than dope"..
Scoppa goes on to detail the pitfalls of drug trafficking
"Look, cocaine is trouble. Cocaine is heat, is police pressure. The prison terms are severe if you get caught. I pleaded guilty [in 2004] to a conspiracy to import 2,000 kg of coke and served time.
I was guilty. But I could have won my case. I pleaded guilty because I listened to my lawyer ... "But if your business is sports betting and usurious loans, what are you risking? It is not severely punished by the judges. You won't end up in deep shit if you get caught up with a charge in court.
But for sure you will be if you get pinched with pounds of coke. That’s why betting and shylocking are so profitable.
Now, he has some questionable math, but I get his overall point here, lol
How many kilos of coke would you have to sell to make yourself $ 20 million in profit like with The Book? First of all, drugs are much riskier.
You have to take $ 40,000 out of your pocket to buy every pound and hope to make $ 2,000 profit from the resale, when you could loan that $ 40,000 and make yourself $ 2,000 just with the interest.
And all this without any risk. Because, unlike dope, you are not at risk of having your product seized by the police because there is none.
All you have to do is make sure the guy you're lending your money to has a good name and that he's reliable, or that he has someone to endorse him, or that he has goods with which you can repay yourself in the event that he is unable to pay you. In short, it's a much less risky business than drugs.
For example, by importing 200 kg of coke, you make about $ 400,000 in profit, or $ 2,000 per kilo. But you also risk losing 10 million, the price you will pay for your 200 kg, if your stock is seized by the police or border agents along the way.
Of course, for this to be true, the kilos would be selling at 50k, meaning a profit of 10k a kilo. I'm not even about to get into how an importer is paying 40k a kilo, lol. Or how he made 20- 30 million making 2k a kilo. That's like mule money. But I get his overall point......
Scoppa further expounds on the gambling operation to Seguin..
"You can also have partners in other organized crime groups.
Let's say you're connected with the Irish: we'll give you a percentage to take care of the bets [taken by the Irish]. There are some who can make up to 40% or 50% of the profits from betting.
Let's say Eric wants to hire you to take care of everything: he's going to get 40% of the profits and he's going to give you half of it.
But everything flows from the same source. The thing with the Book is making sure everyone is happy so everyone stays with you. "And the thing with betting is that there's a good chance you'll end up needing the money yourself.
So you borrow from those who hold the Book ... So if I have the Book, I make a profit on the bets AND the money I loaned to the bettors. What more do you want? It’s butter and butter money!
“Originally, therefore, the one who holds the Book is Paolo Gervasi, who has long been associated with the Rizzuto clan. He was the owner of a dance bar, Castel Tina, in Saint-Léonard. Gervasi kept the Book from the 1980s until the early 2000s, when he lost it to Lorenzo Giordano. “Paolo Gervasi has had a contract on his head for years.
• He says the first attempt on Gervasi was by Domenico Macri, on August 14, 2000. Shot him several times. The second was a bomb attempt placed under his Jeep.
• Salvatore Gervasi was killed by Skunk Giordano. Gervasi was ambushed at a meeting held at a friends car wash. It was a message to his father.
• Scoppa says Giordano killed Gervasi because he wanted the Book, to impress everyone. He says Giordano owed Gervasi about 100k, Vito about 300k.
Paolo Gervasi was killed in 2004 by Ponytail DeVito, along with a Carmelo Tommasino.
• After Gervasi, Giordano had control of the Book, it was well known.
• Lorenzo " Skunk" Giordano had a fearsome reputation.
He was described as one of the six most senior mafiosi of the Rizzuto clan.
From Chapter 5...
On April 18, 2004, Giordano goes crazy at the Globe restaurant on boulevard Saint-Laurent, where he beats up a heroin trafficker of Iranian origin who sells his drugs in territory reserved for the Mafia, before pulling out a gun and to shoot him in the testicles. This earned him admonitions from Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law and advisor, who was unwittingly recorded telling Giordano to stop attracting public attention and cut back on his alcohol consumption. to better keep calm.
On August 23, 2006, while at the Cavalli resto-bar on Peel Street, Giordano and another Mafia strongman, Francesco Del Balso, were embroiled in a skirmish with a businessman associated with the Hells Angels, Charles Huneault.
“There was an argument between these individuals, relates Corporal Vinicio Sebastiano, of the RCMP, before the Charbonneau commission in 2012. Mr. Huneault would have taken Mr. Del Balso by the throat.
Getting your hands on a high-ranking mafia man is not done. So, Mr. Giordano would have gone outside the bar and fired on Mr. Huneault's vehicle that was a Porsche. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped "because Huneault did not press charges.
In the fall of 2005, Giordano and Del Balso also reportedly beat up businessman John Xanthoudakis, chairman of the Norshield financial group, who defrauded more than 2,000 investors.
The latter, including some close to the Mafia, lost several tens of millions of dollars. Recorded without his knowledge by the RCMP, Del Balso boasted that Xanthoudakis was "pissing blood" and that "his face opened like a pancake from his plastic surgery".
This same Xanthoudakis was then sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the fraudulent scandal involving the production house Cinar and its founder Ronald Weinberg.
Giordano and Del Balso are known to lead the underground sports betting network of the Rizzuto clan. According to the latest known figures, obtained during Operation Coliseum led by the RCMP, between October 1, 2004 and March 19, 2006, at least 1,609 players made more than 820,000 bets on the website of this network hosted by servers located in the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, as well as in Belize, a small country in Central America then considered a tax haven.
According to the RCMP, during those 18 months, the bets represent 390 million dollars, and the network, which employs up to 58 agents to take the bets and book them on the Internet, realizes a net profit of 26.8 million. , although the 2004–2005 National Hockey League (NHL) season was canceled due to a labor dispute between players and owners.
While listening electronics carried out during Operation Colosseum, Giordano and Del Balso complain about the effects of the NHL lockout on sports betting. “Hockey is the best sport for bookmaking,” says Giordano.
In the recordings, the two also discuss the bribes they imposed on some punters with gambling debt totaling a few hundred thousand dollars.
On January 17, 2005, at the Consenza social club where they met their boss Francesco Arcadi, they brought up the case of Liborio Cuntrera, whose father, Agostino Cuntrera, nicknamed "the Lord of Saint Leonard", is close to Vito Rizzuto. Cuntrera, nicknamed "Pancho", lost $ 150,000 gambling but does not want to pay off his debt.
They complain about what the father doesn't want to do with them if the son is in debt and says he won't pay him either. "He is turning our business upside down," rages Lorenzo Giordano, who has decided to put the name of young Cuntrera on the blacklist of bettors excluded from the network.
From Chapter 5
Lorenzo Giordano, one of the six leading heads of the Rizzuto clan and right-hand man of operations chief Francesco Arcadi, was missed. The police finally capture him six months later in Toronto, in the luxury condo building where he is hiding. Like De Vito, he's picked up in a gym where he's going to train.
In the winter of 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months imprisonment, in addition to losing his $ 1.1 million house, his Ferrari, his Porsche and his BMW to the state and the tax authorities.
As our Bureau of Investigation then learned, in early 2015, while still in prison, Giordano was allegedly offered 25% of the proceeds of the Book he lost while in detention.
This is a compromise of the interim Montreal Mafia boss and holder of the Book, Stefano Sollecito, the one Scoppa calls "Steve Sauce." We can assume that Sollecito wants to buy peace with the one who is considered number 3 of the Rizzuto clan at the time of his arrest in Operation Colosseum.
• Scoppa says Giordano tried to acquire part of the Toronto Book, but he failed. He says in Toronto the Book is called " Platinum" and is worth more than the Montreal Book, he was unsure exactly HOW much more.
• He says Giordano bought back all the minority shares in the Book, in order to gain full control. He maintained control over it until his arrest in 2007 in the Colosseum operation, all the way up until 2012.
He had no choice but to give it up, as he was incarcerated, and had no regents in the street to administer the Book on his behalf.
• Scoppa believes " Steve Sauce", Stefano Sollecito now has control of the book. He paid a " tribute" of 25% of the profits to Giordano while he was incarcerated.
• Scoppa considers Sollecito his arch rival. He hates, but grudgingly respects him. He says Sollecito is brilliant and cunning, treacherous and dangerous.
• Scoppa say the mafiosi responsible for the Gervasi murders, Giordano and DeVito suffered terrible fates, then recaps the details of the DeVito arrest, and his daughters murders.
Also, Giordanos murder
• Giordano had intents on regaining full control of the Book upon his release from prison....
Lorenzo Giordano does not have the opportunity to get his hands on the famous Book, which he took from Paolo Gervasi and then lost during his imprisonment. On the morning of March 1, 2016, the mafioso, who has become accustomed to training regularly at the Carrefour Multisports de Laval, is awaited in the parking lot by a gunman who leaves him no chance....
A couple questions.....
Are the sportsbooks in New York, controlled by a few, "Central offices?" ( Is that the correct term?)
I always had the impression most made guys ran their own sportsbook. Maybe they borrow from their capo, or another made guy or loan shark, but I thought they had their own books. Do made guys, say, buy a 5, 7.5, 10, 15% share in their capos book? Is that how it works?
Borello and Alite were kinda getting into it with the half sheets and stuff.....
Do made men buy shares of his families central bookmaking office? Of his Capos office? Is there a central office for all the families?
Is it borough specific? Take the Pernas... was it the main book for the Luchesses? Or is it Pernas book personally? Or Lucheese and Genovese together? Or is it more like, all the action in JERSEY, in general? Like a geographic thing?
The Montreal book kinda reminds me of the 30s mob with the race wire, how all the bookies had to use their wire service. Is it, that all the gamblers have to use their gambling infrastructure?
I'm just wondering, why the hell Scoppa didnt just start a sportsbook. He had NO problems encroaching on others drug turf, which is MUCH more dangerous. If you can import cocaine, you can certainly travel to a tax haven, incorporate, get a gambling license, and start taking bets, or am I missing something?
I'll stop here for the moment, but I do have a bunch of sportsbook related questions for the board...
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
Really enjoying these breakdowns
'You don't go crucifying people outside a church; not on Good Friday.'
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
Gervasi died because he vowed to take revenge for the murder of his son, who was killed because he refused to stop selling drugs to the Rock Machine.Etna wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:12 pm All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.
Re: Andrew Scoppa
Not because of the sports book?PogueMahone wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 7:25 pmGervasi died because he vowed to take revenge for the murder of his son, who was killed because he refused to stop selling drugs to the Rock Machine.Etna wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:12 pm All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
Oh come on now Chin, I'm basically doing a poor man's impersonation of you or B., or Gohnjotti, lol
But I appreciate it my man, I'm glad you all are e enjoying these, I'll keep em coming....
Re: Andrew Scoppa
«Je n’ai pas peur pour ma vie» - Félix Séguin:
https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2020/11/20/ ... lix-seguin
https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2020/11/20/ ... lix-seguin
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
A couple thoughts before I tackle Chapter 6.....
• Anyone else find it interesting that in NY, you have a proliferation of sportsbooks, with intertwining, conjoined networks. You had either family sanctioned narcotic operations where certain guys got special privileges, otherwise they had to do it alone, away from the family.
So lots of sportsbooks, limited narcotics operations.
• In Montreal it seems the reverse is true. You have a proliferation of narcotics operations, and a centralized sportsbook, where it seems privileged mobsters can buy shares of it.
Lots of narcotics, sportsbooks seem limited to a select few.....
Reading about Montreals sportsbook made me realize I've never really understood NY sportsbooks. Like why is it every other made guy has his own book? Instead of centralized " Family" books?
I'm guessing no one ever made a move to consolidate the sportsbooks?
In that Bonnano movie, there was a commission that controlled the numbers racket, each family had a representative. I'm surprised they never did this for the sportsbooks, or did they?
• Anyone else find it interesting that in NY, you have a proliferation of sportsbooks, with intertwining, conjoined networks. You had either family sanctioned narcotic operations where certain guys got special privileges, otherwise they had to do it alone, away from the family.
So lots of sportsbooks, limited narcotics operations.
• In Montreal it seems the reverse is true. You have a proliferation of narcotics operations, and a centralized sportsbook, where it seems privileged mobsters can buy shares of it.
Lots of narcotics, sportsbooks seem limited to a select few.....
Reading about Montreals sportsbook made me realize I've never really understood NY sportsbooks. Like why is it every other made guy has his own book? Instead of centralized " Family" books?
I'm guessing no one ever made a move to consolidate the sportsbooks?
In that Bonnano movie, there was a commission that controlled the numbers racket, each family had a representative. I'm surprised they never did this for the sportsbooks, or did they?
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
He actually couldn't, I'll get to it. The underworld was too entrenched in it. His own people pushed for it, while he objected......
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
Chapter 6: The Secret
Scoppa starts off this Chapter with a VERY hot take. He seems to insinuate that in Montreal, the Mafias initiation ceremony is either no longer practiced, or has become functionally meaningless. I'll post the excerpt, so you guys can make your own interpretations......
The initiation rites by which a mafia soldier becomes a true man of honor have been explained repeatedly in court.
Journalist Edmund Mahony, after attending the hearing in which a US district court broadcast for the first time in history a tape with the famous oath recorded, describes the ritual in these terms in the edition. of July 4, 1991 from the Hartford Courant.
The godfather takes the finger which pulls the trigger [the index finger] of the future freedman and pierces him so as to make a few drops of blood bead on an image of a saint. The image is then placed in the initiate's hands and the sponsor sets it on fire. The initiate must then take an oath and swear the omertà.
The formula may vary from family to family, but usually the initiate takes the following oath: "As this card burns, may my soul burn in Hell if I betray the oath of Omerta."
We could translate it as follows in French: "Like this burning card, may my soul burn in hell if I betray the oath of omertà."
This initiation rite is now part of folklore, Scoppa tells us. In Montreal, at least. “Nowadays, people prefer to brag about the crimes they have committed. Because it gives them presence. You want to say to others, "That was me who did it!"
Today, the omertà is just a myth, according to Andrew. It's a thing of the past, and those days are gone.
( I have to point out here, that Scoppa is the one talking, both to Law enforcement and journalists.... so there is an issue of perspective here....)
“In the good old days, it existed. It was a rule that you should not talk about what you had done as criminal activity. Nor what you knew about the criminal world. "
• Scoppa also seems to confirm that the Hells Angel's are Quebecs strongest criminal group right now..
The relationship between the mafia and the bikers is not new, also reminds us of Scoppa. We tend to forget it, but the bikers and the Italian Mafia were already working together during the reign of Vito Rizzuto, "the good old days" as he calls it. “Before they went to war, all the bikers worked for the Italians. The bikers took care of doing all the dirty jobs for the Italians.
But as anyone can see, it is now the Italians who work for the bikers. The old people must turn around in their graves. Vito was a proud man. If he saw that today… ”
Chapter 6 Continued; The Secret Purge- A pact between the Mafia and the Hells Angels
Extract from the article by Michel Auger published in Le Journal de Montréal on September 12, 2000:
A series of murders, failed attacks and the disappearance of very large fish in the within the Hells Angels and the Mafia suggests that the mess is taken in a criminal high place.
Two of the most important members of the Nomads, the super team of the Hells Angels, eliminated, one of the biggest cocaine importers of Canada shot dead, a businessman close to bikers and the mafia attacked and missed in the middle of the street are among the events.
• Seguin goes on to expound on the murders of Paolo and Salvatore Gervasi, as well as Lou " Melou" Roy, and Scott Stienert..
• Normand " Biff" Hammel was one of the Nomads killed, shot in Laval, April of 2000. The police suspected members of the rival Rock Machine club.
• Lou " Melou" Roy was the founding member of the Trois- Rivieres chapter of the Hells Angel's. Member of the Nomads, and second in command after Maurice" Mom" Boucher. Was the Hells Angel's main contact with the Mafia. Was described as the richest of the Hells Angels, worth several million dollars.
• Essentially, the journalist Michel Auger was targeted by the Hells Angel's, because his September 12, 2000 article in the Montreal Journal made connections between the deaths of Louis Roy, and the Gervasi.
• This plot was confirmed by Hells Angel Sylvain Boulanger. It was ordered by the Nomads. This info came out of Operation SharQc in 2006. He also revealed the fact that Hells Angel's moles were bribed people in the SAAQ, to gain access to confidential databases. License plate numbers, vehicle models, home addresses, and other information. Ginette Martineau, and her husband Raymond Turgeon were selling addresses for 200$ a pop. Ended up in prison.
There seemed to be several catalyst for the biker war..
• There was the imprisonment of Salvatore Cazzetta, and a vacuum opened up. He was planning to import 11 tons of coke, which would have given the Rock Machine control of the market.
• Conflicts in territories like Hochelanga-Maisonneuve and Verdun and Ville Emard. Downtown Montreal as well...
• Boulanger said Stienert was killed for standing up to Hells Angels of higher standing. " Maybe", says Scoppa. He has a different take....Scott Steinert and his bodyguard Donald Magnussen were killed because they beat up Leo Rizzuto...
From Scoppa....
"There's another Hells Angels the bikers passed by to do the Rizzuto clan a favor. Do you remember Scott Steinert and his bodyguard [Donald “Bam-Bam” Magnussen]?
Do you know why they were killed? It was because they dared to hit Leo Rizzuto in the face at the boxing club on rue Saint-Dominique. They had opened his face. Paf! I'm not sure Steinert hit him, but his bodyguard did. The news circulated in the middle.
One thing is certain, the two paid with their lives for it. That was the message Vito sent to make it clear that no one, no one touches a hair of his son. Obviously, that was before he was extradited to the United States… ”
• To curb the violence Vito agreed to form a consortium...
From Scoppa.....
Vito didn't want to get involved in the biker war. But the guys directly below him urged him to do it. Vito was like, "Look, it's a waste of time, these guys aren't listening, all they want to do is shoot each other, so we're going to let them kill each other."
But you had guys like Tony Suzuki, Lorenzo [Giordano] and the younger ones who wanted to convince him to form a “distribution table” with the bikers to run the drug market in Montreal.
And this is what they finished by doing. They created a sort of commission together which took control of the coke market. The Italians and the bikers would buy the stock, and then split it up at a good price, but everyone else in the market had to pay them $ 50,000 a kilo.
Basically it was: you get your cargo, you give me half of it, and we each sell our kilo for $ 50,000. That was the agreed partnership. It was concluded in 2000. “Since Vito could not convince Mom to make peace, he had to settle for the second option, which was this alliance with the Nomads.
The whole situation was extremely displeasing to Vito. He was not happy. He didn't want anyone in the Mafia to get wet in this conflict. What he wanted most of all was for the bikers to get along and make peace with each other. He talked to Mom about it a few times, you know?
I really believe this is a key event here... look what happens to the Caruana- Cuntreras in 94...... I think this was the start of their decline, and the beginning of the rise of Ndrangheta, it's all tied to who's controlling the cocaine...
What happened to the Rizzutos hold on the coke supply?
I think the Caruanas- Cuntreras lost the trust of the South American narcos.
Cocaine trafficker
Meanwhile, Caruana organised a network that smuggled eleven metric tonnes of cocaine to Italy from 1991-94. Caruana brought together the cocaine producers of the Colombian Cartels with the Italian distributors, six 'Ndrangheta families from Calabria. At the time the Cuntrera-Caruana family was labeled as "the fly-wheel of the drug trade and the indispensable link between suppliers and distributors."
The investigation, code-named Operation Cartagine, started when the police seized 5,497 kilos of cocaine (a European record at the time) in March 1994 in Turin. A year later the Turin Prosecutors Office presented the indictment. The operation neutralized the most important supply-line of narcotics to Europe, investigators claimed.
Also from Scoppa....
"If you get too much attention, we're all going to get caught because of you. That's what happened. While the bikers were doing the hand jobs for the Italians, no one was really talking about them.
They minded their little business. Bikers have a structure, they are organized. For example, it takes at least six members to form a chapter. They have rules to follow....., but it's different, it's less structured. They were pretty marginal players in organized crime.
Everything changed from 1993–94, with the war between Hells and Rock Machine. Vito did not look down on them or anyone else. The bikers knew that if he needed them he could call them and they would do what Vito asked them to do.
Also, the Italians entrusted bikers with the distribution of their merchandise on the market. It was the bikers who took care of the streets. But during the war, bikers began to take up more space.
They made their own contacts to import narcotics, they developed their network, they grew. And they ended up not really needing the Italians to make money. Now the reverse is happening. Italians work for bikers.
The structure of the Italians completely exploded. The old guard has taken the edge. Vito, Di Maulo, all the main leaders are gone. The only veterans left, they stand still, they smoke their cigars and they play golf. That's all.
“Besides, when the state decided to put all the Hells together in the same prison, Bordeaux, after Operation SharQc, it helped them stay strong instead of weakening them. I don't understand why the authorities made their life so easy. Together, the bikers were able to stay united, they were playing cards ... It was a party! They controlled their entire wing. Instead of isolating them..."
• Gervasi had many enemies, mostly because they owed his sportsbook money
• Salvatore Gervasi, in addition to cocaine trafficking, was getting into " all kinds of business" with the Rock Machine. He was very close to two founding members, the Plescio brothers, Johnny and Tony.
• Louis Roy was close to Colombian traffickers, and chafed at the arrangement between the Nomads and the mafia. Apparently, he wanted to operate like an open market and undercut the established prices set by the cartel. He was also said to have the most territory to himself, many Hells were jealous of him.
• Paul Cotroni was killed by Rock Machine member Gerald Gallant. No direct motive is given, its implied it was tied to the biker war
• The Hells and the mafia made a house cleaning pact.. The Hells would eliminate Louis Roy for the consortium, while the Mafia killed the Gervasis to weaken the Hells Angels rivals, the Rock Machine.
Also killed were two Italians working for Roy, Guiseppe Ciancio, and Gianfranco Ferrara. Both these men are said to have had ties to the Rockers as well, the Hells Angel hit squad.
A final excerpt from Chapter 6
To date, the murders of Paolo Gervasi, his son Salvatore, as well as those of the Hells Angels Scott Steinert and Louis Roy have not been elucidated.
But police sources tell us that Andrew Scoppa's claims about the circumstances and possible motives of these crimes are consistent with information that authorities have long held without ever disclosing.
Scoppa's bitter observations about the rise of bikers at the expense of the Italian Mafia in Quebec are also consistent with Corporal Linda Féquière's testimony before the Charbonneau Commission.
According to her, while the Rizzuto clan did "start to lose scale" following Operation Colosseum in 2006, this is actually part of a larger trend.
“The Sicilian Mafia is starting to decrease not only in Montreal, Quebec or North America, but everywhere in the world where it is established. What may explain this decline is […] that during the last 50 years, there have been multiple investigations which have mainly targeted the Sicilian Mafia.
There have also been anti-mafia laws in certain countries, I think in Italy and the United States, as well as judicial programs which have favored the testimony of subjects repented […] and the condemnation of the leaders of the Sicilian Mafia.
This is interesting to me, because shes SPECIFICALLY talking about the SICILIAN mafia here.
Scoppa starts off this Chapter with a VERY hot take. He seems to insinuate that in Montreal, the Mafias initiation ceremony is either no longer practiced, or has become functionally meaningless. I'll post the excerpt, so you guys can make your own interpretations......
The initiation rites by which a mafia soldier becomes a true man of honor have been explained repeatedly in court.
Journalist Edmund Mahony, after attending the hearing in which a US district court broadcast for the first time in history a tape with the famous oath recorded, describes the ritual in these terms in the edition. of July 4, 1991 from the Hartford Courant.
The godfather takes the finger which pulls the trigger [the index finger] of the future freedman and pierces him so as to make a few drops of blood bead on an image of a saint. The image is then placed in the initiate's hands and the sponsor sets it on fire. The initiate must then take an oath and swear the omertà.
The formula may vary from family to family, but usually the initiate takes the following oath: "As this card burns, may my soul burn in Hell if I betray the oath of Omerta."
We could translate it as follows in French: "Like this burning card, may my soul burn in hell if I betray the oath of omertà."
This initiation rite is now part of folklore, Scoppa tells us. In Montreal, at least. “Nowadays, people prefer to brag about the crimes they have committed. Because it gives them presence. You want to say to others, "That was me who did it!"
Today, the omertà is just a myth, according to Andrew. It's a thing of the past, and those days are gone.
( I have to point out here, that Scoppa is the one talking, both to Law enforcement and journalists.... so there is an issue of perspective here....)
“In the good old days, it existed. It was a rule that you should not talk about what you had done as criminal activity. Nor what you knew about the criminal world. "
• Scoppa also seems to confirm that the Hells Angel's are Quebecs strongest criminal group right now..
The relationship between the mafia and the bikers is not new, also reminds us of Scoppa. We tend to forget it, but the bikers and the Italian Mafia were already working together during the reign of Vito Rizzuto, "the good old days" as he calls it. “Before they went to war, all the bikers worked for the Italians. The bikers took care of doing all the dirty jobs for the Italians.
But as anyone can see, it is now the Italians who work for the bikers. The old people must turn around in their graves. Vito was a proud man. If he saw that today… ”
Chapter 6 Continued; The Secret Purge- A pact between the Mafia and the Hells Angels
Extract from the article by Michel Auger published in Le Journal de Montréal on September 12, 2000:
A series of murders, failed attacks and the disappearance of very large fish in the within the Hells Angels and the Mafia suggests that the mess is taken in a criminal high place.
Two of the most important members of the Nomads, the super team of the Hells Angels, eliminated, one of the biggest cocaine importers of Canada shot dead, a businessman close to bikers and the mafia attacked and missed in the middle of the street are among the events.
• Seguin goes on to expound on the murders of Paolo and Salvatore Gervasi, as well as Lou " Melou" Roy, and Scott Stienert..
• Normand " Biff" Hammel was one of the Nomads killed, shot in Laval, April of 2000. The police suspected members of the rival Rock Machine club.
• Lou " Melou" Roy was the founding member of the Trois- Rivieres chapter of the Hells Angel's. Member of the Nomads, and second in command after Maurice" Mom" Boucher. Was the Hells Angel's main contact with the Mafia. Was described as the richest of the Hells Angels, worth several million dollars.
• Essentially, the journalist Michel Auger was targeted by the Hells Angel's, because his September 12, 2000 article in the Montreal Journal made connections between the deaths of Louis Roy, and the Gervasi.
• This plot was confirmed by Hells Angel Sylvain Boulanger. It was ordered by the Nomads. This info came out of Operation SharQc in 2006. He also revealed the fact that Hells Angel's moles were bribed people in the SAAQ, to gain access to confidential databases. License plate numbers, vehicle models, home addresses, and other information. Ginette Martineau, and her husband Raymond Turgeon were selling addresses for 200$ a pop. Ended up in prison.
There seemed to be several catalyst for the biker war..
• There was the imprisonment of Salvatore Cazzetta, and a vacuum opened up. He was planning to import 11 tons of coke, which would have given the Rock Machine control of the market.
• Conflicts in territories like Hochelanga-Maisonneuve and Verdun and Ville Emard. Downtown Montreal as well...
• Boulanger said Stienert was killed for standing up to Hells Angels of higher standing. " Maybe", says Scoppa. He has a different take....Scott Steinert and his bodyguard Donald Magnussen were killed because they beat up Leo Rizzuto...
From Scoppa....
"There's another Hells Angels the bikers passed by to do the Rizzuto clan a favor. Do you remember Scott Steinert and his bodyguard [Donald “Bam-Bam” Magnussen]?
Do you know why they were killed? It was because they dared to hit Leo Rizzuto in the face at the boxing club on rue Saint-Dominique. They had opened his face. Paf! I'm not sure Steinert hit him, but his bodyguard did. The news circulated in the middle.
One thing is certain, the two paid with their lives for it. That was the message Vito sent to make it clear that no one, no one touches a hair of his son. Obviously, that was before he was extradited to the United States… ”
• To curb the violence Vito agreed to form a consortium...
From Scoppa.....
Vito didn't want to get involved in the biker war. But the guys directly below him urged him to do it. Vito was like, "Look, it's a waste of time, these guys aren't listening, all they want to do is shoot each other, so we're going to let them kill each other."
But you had guys like Tony Suzuki, Lorenzo [Giordano] and the younger ones who wanted to convince him to form a “distribution table” with the bikers to run the drug market in Montreal.
And this is what they finished by doing. They created a sort of commission together which took control of the coke market. The Italians and the bikers would buy the stock, and then split it up at a good price, but everyone else in the market had to pay them $ 50,000 a kilo.
Basically it was: you get your cargo, you give me half of it, and we each sell our kilo for $ 50,000. That was the agreed partnership. It was concluded in 2000. “Since Vito could not convince Mom to make peace, he had to settle for the second option, which was this alliance with the Nomads.
The whole situation was extremely displeasing to Vito. He was not happy. He didn't want anyone in the Mafia to get wet in this conflict. What he wanted most of all was for the bikers to get along and make peace with each other. He talked to Mom about it a few times, you know?
I really believe this is a key event here... look what happens to the Caruana- Cuntreras in 94...... I think this was the start of their decline, and the beginning of the rise of Ndrangheta, it's all tied to who's controlling the cocaine...
What happened to the Rizzutos hold on the coke supply?
I think the Caruanas- Cuntreras lost the trust of the South American narcos.
Cocaine trafficker
Meanwhile, Caruana organised a network that smuggled eleven metric tonnes of cocaine to Italy from 1991-94. Caruana brought together the cocaine producers of the Colombian Cartels with the Italian distributors, six 'Ndrangheta families from Calabria. At the time the Cuntrera-Caruana family was labeled as "the fly-wheel of the drug trade and the indispensable link between suppliers and distributors."
The investigation, code-named Operation Cartagine, started when the police seized 5,497 kilos of cocaine (a European record at the time) in March 1994 in Turin. A year later the Turin Prosecutors Office presented the indictment. The operation neutralized the most important supply-line of narcotics to Europe, investigators claimed.
Also from Scoppa....
"If you get too much attention, we're all going to get caught because of you. That's what happened. While the bikers were doing the hand jobs for the Italians, no one was really talking about them.
They minded their little business. Bikers have a structure, they are organized. For example, it takes at least six members to form a chapter. They have rules to follow....., but it's different, it's less structured. They were pretty marginal players in organized crime.
Everything changed from 1993–94, with the war between Hells and Rock Machine. Vito did not look down on them or anyone else. The bikers knew that if he needed them he could call them and they would do what Vito asked them to do.
Also, the Italians entrusted bikers with the distribution of their merchandise on the market. It was the bikers who took care of the streets. But during the war, bikers began to take up more space.
They made their own contacts to import narcotics, they developed their network, they grew. And they ended up not really needing the Italians to make money. Now the reverse is happening. Italians work for bikers.
The structure of the Italians completely exploded. The old guard has taken the edge. Vito, Di Maulo, all the main leaders are gone. The only veterans left, they stand still, they smoke their cigars and they play golf. That's all.
“Besides, when the state decided to put all the Hells together in the same prison, Bordeaux, after Operation SharQc, it helped them stay strong instead of weakening them. I don't understand why the authorities made their life so easy. Together, the bikers were able to stay united, they were playing cards ... It was a party! They controlled their entire wing. Instead of isolating them..."
• Gervasi had many enemies, mostly because they owed his sportsbook money
• Salvatore Gervasi, in addition to cocaine trafficking, was getting into " all kinds of business" with the Rock Machine. He was very close to two founding members, the Plescio brothers, Johnny and Tony.
• Louis Roy was close to Colombian traffickers, and chafed at the arrangement between the Nomads and the mafia. Apparently, he wanted to operate like an open market and undercut the established prices set by the cartel. He was also said to have the most territory to himself, many Hells were jealous of him.
• Paul Cotroni was killed by Rock Machine member Gerald Gallant. No direct motive is given, its implied it was tied to the biker war
• The Hells and the mafia made a house cleaning pact.. The Hells would eliminate Louis Roy for the consortium, while the Mafia killed the Gervasis to weaken the Hells Angels rivals, the Rock Machine.
Also killed were two Italians working for Roy, Guiseppe Ciancio, and Gianfranco Ferrara. Both these men are said to have had ties to the Rockers as well, the Hells Angel hit squad.
A final excerpt from Chapter 6
To date, the murders of Paolo Gervasi, his son Salvatore, as well as those of the Hells Angels Scott Steinert and Louis Roy have not been elucidated.
But police sources tell us that Andrew Scoppa's claims about the circumstances and possible motives of these crimes are consistent with information that authorities have long held without ever disclosing.
Scoppa's bitter observations about the rise of bikers at the expense of the Italian Mafia in Quebec are also consistent with Corporal Linda Féquière's testimony before the Charbonneau Commission.
According to her, while the Rizzuto clan did "start to lose scale" following Operation Colosseum in 2006, this is actually part of a larger trend.
“The Sicilian Mafia is starting to decrease not only in Montreal, Quebec or North America, but everywhere in the world where it is established. What may explain this decline is […] that during the last 50 years, there have been multiple investigations which have mainly targeted the Sicilian Mafia.
There have also been anti-mafia laws in certain countries, I think in Italy and the United States, as well as judicial programs which have favored the testimony of subjects repented […] and the condemnation of the leaders of the Sicilian Mafia.
This is interesting to me, because shes SPECIFICALLY talking about the SICILIAN mafia here.
- SantoClaus
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
Not a really surprising to see that the Rock Machine vs The Hells was such an influential event and a real catalyst to everything that still happens.
Interesting stuff about the Nomads during that time, Mom Boucher was arrested in the same arrests as Sollecito, Rizzuto and Woolley in 2015. He was sentenced in 2019, I think for attempt murder on Desjardins. Does that imply an alliance amongst all of those individuals?
Walter Stadnik returned to Hamilton at the end of 2014, right before a lot of stuff in that city went nuts. You’ve gotta wonder how much of what Scoppa is shedding light on, can be applied to what occurred in Hamilton? The HA Nomads of the biker war and the Sports Book, specifically.
Interesting stuff about the Nomads during that time, Mom Boucher was arrested in the same arrests as Sollecito, Rizzuto and Woolley in 2015. He was sentenced in 2019, I think for attempt murder on Desjardins. Does that imply an alliance amongst all of those individuals?
Walter Stadnik returned to Hamilton at the end of 2014, right before a lot of stuff in that city went nuts. You’ve gotta wonder how much of what Scoppa is shedding light on, can be applied to what occurred in Hamilton? The HA Nomads of the biker war and the Sports Book, specifically.
“To know and not to do, is not to know”
Re: Andrew Scoppa
I remember in another montreal mafia book, one of the scaduto brothers saud the same thing - the oath in cosa nostra is a thing of the past. But he was in Sicily, not Montreal.
Re: Andrew Scoppa
This is the revelation we Montreal fanboys were hoping for, for a long time. Scoppa would be in a position to know pretty much anything. It's almost on the scale of Massino, with the big difference that no info is withheld. This is a major turning point in gaining the ultimate knowledge on Canadian affairs. Would I be exaggerating to say it's Valachi 2.0? I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys who know me how I excited I am about it (despire some personal problems I'm dealing with now). I'll try to keep an eye on this thread as much as I can, and my appreciation goes out to Cabrini, antimafia and others.
- motorfab
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Re: Andrew Scoppa
I agree, this is THE thing I have been waiting for years. I can't wait to receive my copy but it won't be before Christmas.Lupara wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 3:11 pm This is the revelation we Montreal fanboys were hoping for, for a long time. Scoppa would be in a position to know pretty much anything. It's almost on the scale of Massino, with the big difference that no info is withheld. This is a major turning point in gaining the ultimate knowledge on Canadian affairs. Would I be exaggerating to say it's Valachi 2.0? I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys who know me how I excited I am about it (despire some personal problems I'm dealing with now). I'll try to keep an eye on this thread as much as I can, and my appreciation goes out to Cabrini, antimafia and others.
Apart that glad to see you here again man, hope other than your personal worries everything is ok for you.