Andrew Scoppa

[Moscone65]

The Siderno Group (particularly the Commisso's) are the main force of organized crime in Toronto and the greater toronto area. No other group comes close to them. They are heavily embedded with various gnags and the local hells angels, as well as the loners mc. However, a few groups have challenged them over the years. The Caruana Cuntreras with backing from montreal, some people in hamilton as well as the wolfpack guys attacked the commissos in retaliation for being ripped off in a deal. However, they were mostly on the losing side. A vaguely russian/eastern european group also challenged the commissos/hells angels recently during the tow truck wars, but a few people were clipped in north east toronto from the eastern euro side and things have calmed down. I am a local by the way.

[Wiseguy]

If we're going back over the evidences for or against the Bonanno-Montreal relationship, again, we can't forget the press releases surrounding the Taloni indictment in 2013 that referred to the "Rizzuto Crime Family" and the "Bonanno Crime Family." Why differentiate between the two if they're still the same group at that point?

Also, even if we assume the formal affiliation continued past the Sciascia murder in 1999, or Massino's defection in 2004 for that matter, the question remains if it even matters considering - unless I'm missing something - not a single remaining Bonanno member of the Montreal can be positively identified at this point. A handful of "possiblys" or "maybes" but that's it.

[stubbs]

If we're going back over the evidences for or against the Bonanno-Montreal relationship, again, we can't forget the press releases surrounding the Taloni indictment in 2013 that referred to the "Rizzuto Crime Family" and the "Bonanno Crime Family." Why differentiate between the two if they're still the same group at that point?

Also, even if we assume the formal affiliation continued past the Sciascia murder in 1999, or Massino's defection in 2004 for that matter, the question remains if it even matters considering - unless I'm missing something - not a single remaining Bonanno member of the Montreal can be positively identified at this point. A handful of "possiblys" or "maybes" but that's it.

Interesting! I found the DEA press release from 2014 here. It does call him an associate of the Rizzuto crime family of Montreal.

[OcSleeper]

If we're going back over the evidences for or against the Bonanno-Montreal relationship, again, we can't forget the press releases surrounding the Taloni indictment in 2013 that referred to the "Rizzuto Crime Family" and the "Bonanno Crime Family." Why differentiate between the two if they're still the same group at that point?

Also, even if we assume the formal affiliation continued past the Sciascia murder in 1999, or Massino's defection in 2004 for that matter, the question remains if it even matters considering - unless I'm missing something - not a single remaining Bonanno member of the Montreal can be positively identified at this point. A handful of "possiblys" or "maybes" but that's it.

I was unaware of this indictment but it's a good point. Especially since it's a US indictment, I believe they've never referred to the Rizzutos as their own family before. If it was an RCMP file I could understand because they frequently refer to the Rizzutos (and Hamilton families) as their own when in reality they've only been crews.

I think you're right about the members as well but there are a few maybes that people are fairly confident on.

[B.]

Yeah, and the Genovese and Philly families merged into one organization called the "East Coast LCN Enterprise".

[Pogo The Clown]

People ran with that on the forums but the actual indictment never claimed anything like that.

announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging 46 defendants for their alleged roles in a sprawling and long-running racketeering conspiracy composed of leaders, members, and associates of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese, Bonanno, and Philadelphia Organized Crime Families of La Cosa Nostra (“LCN”), who worked together to engage in a multitude of criminal activities throughout the East Coast of the United States between Springfield, Massachusetts, and Southern Florida (the “East Coast LCN Enterprise” or the “Enterprise”).

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ma ... ized-crime

[B.]

A certain emphasis was placed on it, which naturally brought criticism not only from the forums but also Capeci. I understand it's not directly equivalent to calling a group a "Crime Family", a phrase that has been used by the RCMP to refer to individual clans that belong to other mafia organizations. Whether or not the RCMP's designations had any impact on the FBI's language toward a Canadian group is an open question. If the FBI has updated intelligence on Montreal's formal affiliation, we can only hope those details come out ASAP.

[OcSleeper]

People ran with that on the forums but the actual indictment never claimed anything like that.

announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging 46 defendants for their alleged roles in a sprawling and long-running racketeering conspiracy composed of leaders, members, and associates of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese, Bonanno, and Philadelphia Organized Crime Families of La Cosa Nostra (“LCN”), who worked together to engage in a multitude of criminal activities throughout the East Coast of the United States between Springfield, Massachusetts, and Southern Florida (the “East Coast LCN Enterprise” or the “Enterprise”).

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ma ... ized-crime

Is this not what wiseguy was referring to?

Earlier today, at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, Alessandro Taloni, an alleged associate of the Montreal-based Rizzuto organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. In May 2013, Taloni pled guilty to cocaine trafficking charges contained in a superseding indictment returned on April 3, 2013. As part of his sentence, Taloni will also forfeit $2,663,191 that federal agents seized from multiple locations in California that Taloni used to store narcotics and drug proceeds.

Taloni and ten members of a Montreal-based drug distribution organization affiliated with the Rizzuto and Bonanno crime families, the Hells Angels, and the Sinaloa Cartel were charged with narcotics and money laundering offenses in connection with trafficking over $1 billion worth of marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy into the United States between 1998 and 2012. 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/al ... prisonment

[B.]

That's what he was referring to and it includes very interesting wording but we need more elaboration/clarification to understand it.

[CabriniGreen]

The Cuntrera Caruana clan most likely died in 1998 with the arrest of Alfonso, Gerlando, Pasquale and Giuseppe Caruana. The rest of the family either ended up with the Rizzutos or carried on their own business. Giuseppe "Big Joe" Cuntrera for example was doing business with Giuseppe Coluccio of Marina di Gioiosa Ionica and active in Toronto.

They were still controlling OC in Ostia, Rome as late as 2012, through the Triassi brothers.

I do think the Caruana brothers getting arrested put a nail in their narcotics empire, which really weakened them. The Ndrangheta took their modus operandi, and applied it to their whole organization.

Theres been a lot of misconceptions over the years. Hell, just recently we realize the Siderno group JUST BECAME a Siderno Crimine. Before, it was also Marina Gioiosa people and others as well.

I'm not sure I understood that, can you specify please ? You mean a Locale ? In Canada or in Italy ?

Only that the Siderno guys, Figliomeni and Commiso expelled the other components of the Camera Di Controllo, the ones from Marina Gioiosa and Gioiosa Jonica. Making it TRULY a Siderno Crimine.

[chin_gigante]

Chapter 17 [final chapter]

- Seguin had brought up the idea of writing a book before, but Scoppa didn’t go for it
- By mid-2015, Scoppa was becoming very agitated and anxious
- Scoppa had to take pills and smoke pot to sleep but still would wake up sweating in the middle of the night, afraid that someone was coming to kill him
- Scoppa and Seguin practically stopped meeting in 2016
- After he was arrested, Scoppa called Seguin to make sure he wouldn’t take about their relationship
- Scoppa and Seguin did not speak again until October 2018
- Seguin had been threatened by Francesco Del Balso and he wanted advice from Scoppa
- Scoppa said not to worry about Del Balso, and that everyone was laughing at him for threatening a journalist
- Scoppa also gave Seguin a bottle of wine, which he claimed was Vito Rizzuto’s favourite kind
- Seguin’s contact with Scoppa was very intermittent until Salvatore Scoppa was killed May 2019
- Seguin reached out to Scoppa a few days after his brother was killed and brought up the book project again
- Scoppa agreed to help with the book and consented to Eric Thibault being brought in
- Scoppa held Steve Sollecito responsible for his situation and wanted to do the book to settle scores
- Scoppa accused Sollecito of a few murders in front of Seguin and Thibault
- Scoppa considered Sollecito and his followers to be people without honour or loyalty
- When Operation Premediter hit, the SQ called Seguin and Thibault in to tell them they had again discovered evidence of their relationship with Scoppa during the investigation
- Even though Scoppa was not arrested in Operation Premediter, the police told Seguin and Thibault it would not be safe to meet with him because of the increased threat to his life
- Upon Scoppa’s release from prison in May 2018 he was immediately faced with problems because Sollecito had also been released a couple of months prior
- The chapter then describes the prosecutorial misconduct regarding wiretaps that led to the acquittals in February 2018 of Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto
- Sollecito and Rizzuto were recorded in Loris Cavaliere’s office in August 2015 discussing whether they should kill Salvatore Scoppa
- The Judge ruled that the police had prioritised the investigation over the protection of lawyer-client privilege, both for the defendants and innocent third parties (lawyers from the same firm and their clients who should not have been recorded)
- Police had to make seven surreptitious entries into the building to install and later repair surveillance equipment
- The video camera they installed in the conference room malfunctioned a few days after it was installed in August 2014
- The camera in the reception area stopped working from January to November 2015
- The camera outside the building also failed
- Police eventually stopped trying to fix the devices in order to avoid the risks of being discovered
- Investigators had bugged areas frequently used by other lawyers and clients not under investigation
- A “well-connected source” told Seguin and Thibault that the acquittals took the Scoppa brothers by surprise
- The Scoppas had expected Rizzuto and Sollecito to be convicted and receive long prison sentences
- Steve Ovadia was killed in Laval on 28 June 2018
- Ovadia was ambushed in the parking lot of a shopping centre on Samson Boulevard by a gunman who fired three shots as Ovadia got into his SUV
- Journalists at Le Journal de Montreal were shown CCTV footage of Ovadia’s killing
- Salvatore Scoppa was then killed on 4 May 2019
- Salvatore had survived a prior attempt on his life on 22 February 2017 (shortly after Andrew had been arrested)
- Salvatore was killed during a first communion party for one of his children at the Sheraton Hotel in Laval
- Police suspected a friend may have set him up by luring him outside to smoke
- The gunman opened fire on Salvatore while he was outside and followed him indoors, emptying two magazines of ammunition
- The gunman fled in a black Ford Explorer driven by an accomplice
- The friend who was smoking outside with Salvatore was unharmed, gave conflicting stories to the police, and had previously worked for the Rizzuto clan
- Following his brother’s murder, Scoppa then agreed to work on the book and travelled to Spain with Seguin and Thibault
- In September 2019, La Presse published an article about how the Hells Angels had become the dominant force in organised crime in Quebec according to the police
- Vito Salvaggio, Leonardo Rizzuto, Nicola Spagnolo, Liborio Cuntrera, and Stefano Sollecito remained associated with the “Sicilian clan” and continued to control the Book
- Chief Inspector Guy Lapointe noted that the “concept” of men of honour “no longer exists” and greed, as opposed to loyalty, controls criminal organisations today
- The article noted that Scoppa was blacklisted by the rest of the Mafia and was isolated following his incarceration and the murder of the brother, though he still had resources and contacts
- Operation Premediter then hit in October 2019, though Scoppa was not charged
- The case alleged that Salvatore and his “right-hand man” Jonathan Massari took three months to plot the murders of Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito
- Giordano was targeted from his release from prison in December 2015 to his murder on 1 March 2016
- Giordano was stalked and his killers knew he worked out at the gym in Laval where he was killed
- Sollecito was also stalked as he journeyed from his home in his BMW
- A gunman waited in a bus shelter for Sollecito to make an expected stop nearby
- Salvatore and Massari were also responsible for the disappearances of Vincenzo and Giuseppe Falduto in July 2016
- The hit team contained an individual who began cooperating with the police, and whose identity has been kept secret for legal purposes
- The cooperating witness began working with the police because the Scoppa brothers did not pay him and his accomplices the sums promised for their work
- The Scoppa brothers ordered the 2016 murders to establish their authority over “the rest of the Montreal Mafia”
- The hit team had a list of at least a dozen individuals to kill, mostly linked to the “Sicilian clan”
- In December 2019 Le Journal de Montreal published an article about the “comeback” of the Sicilian clan, with Sollecito described as the new leader
- It is unclear whether Leonardo Rizzuto will attempt to follow the footsteps of his father
- The clan was observed meeting with the Hells Angels and “former Calabrian enemies”
- The clan can count on the support of bikers such as Salvatore Cazzetta, Mario Brouillette, and Martin Robert
- Francesco Arcadi returned to service following the completion of his sentence
- Francesco Del Balso was also allowed to resume business after his enemies attempted to kill him
- When Scoppa was in Barcelona with Seguin and Thibault, he complained about how in “the Mafia” the minute you make a mistake you become worthless
- Scoppa believed those opposed to him were jealous
- Scoppa talked about men of honour, saying “A man of honour, for me, is a man of his word who keeps his promises and respects everyone. It doesn’t exist anymore, it’s just wind. Before, in the Mafia, a man of honour was someone who became untouchable because we agreed to include him among us and we support him. A pencil breaks easily. If you take four or five together, it gets harder to break them, huh? That was the principle in the old days. We stand together because we get stronger. Strength in numbers. Even though we don't all like each other, even if we don't always agree, we are stronger together. Let's say you've been successful in life. That you did not succeed at the expense of other people that you could have taken advantage of. You did it right, you were respectful, generous, understanding… For example, every year I gave thousands of dollars [to a foundation] to buy gifts for sick children. Those are the qualities of an honourable man. But that no longer exists here. What you see is greed, selfishness. It's every man for himself. Money is all that matters, it's all there is. It does not matter the means to harvest it.”
- Scoppa did not attend his brother’s funeral and believed the police would do nothing to arrest his killers
- Scoppa believed he was “squeezed” because he complained to Vito Rizzuto that Steve Sollecito was killing people to take their businesses, and because Sollecito owed him a fortune
- Scoppa said that Sollecito “thinks he can kill anyone” since his father was killed
- Scoppa believed that Sollecito thinks he has to keep taking people out or else new enemies will catch up with him
- Scoppa did not regret his criminal life
- He regretted not being able to look after his son or go to his soccer games
- Antonio De Blasio plotted to kill Salvatore Scoppa in 2015
- De Blasio was killed in a park in Saint-Leonard while attending his son’s soccer practice on 16 August 2017
- Scoppa said De Blasio was killed “probably” because of the botched hit on Tony Vanelli
- Street gang members mistook Angelo D’Onofrio for Vanelli and shot him to death 16 August 2017
- De Blasio organised the crew that killed D’Onofrio and served as the intermediary with those who ordered Vanelli’s murder
- The informant in his brother’s hit team came to Scoppa’s door to try to get him to talk about payments for contracts
- Scoppa told Seguin and Thibault he had nothing to do with it and just wanted to make peace and the informant was looking to pin it on him
- Seguin was relieved when the trip to Barcelona ended and felt that Scoppa’s lack of control over his own life led him to try to control others
- Seguin believed Scoppa was a narcissistic personality
- When asked by Seguin and Thibault what they should do with their recordings in case something serious happened to him, Scoppa said, “Do what you have to do. Do the right thing”
- Seguin did not see Scoppa again after the Barcelona trip

[PogueMahone]

Thanks for all your work sharing this info!

[stubbs]

Thanks for posting!

This was the most interesting part to me:

In December 2019 Le Journal de Montreal published an article about the “comeback” of the Sicilian clan, with Sollecito described as the new leader
- It is unclear whether Leonardo Rizzuto will attempt to follow the footsteps of his father
- The clan was observed meeting with the Hells Angels and “former Calabrian enemies”
- The clan can count on the support of bikers such as Salvatore Cazzetta, Mario Brouillette, and Martin Robert

I wonder if “former Calabrian enemies” means in Toronto or if that means the Violis? Dom Violi was talking about introducing the informant to his connections in Montreal, so I wonder if those old beefs have been squashed, especially with Nick Sr and Vito both dead.

[OcSleeper]

Sorry for the long posts but I have a lot of comments and questions about this last chapter.

- Seguin had been threatened by Francesco Del Balso and he wanted advice from Scoppa
- Francesco Del Balso was also allowed to resume business after his enemies attempted to kill him.

Didn't Del Balso also threaten Paul Cherry? From what we hear about him it seem like he's a capable enforcer but kinda a loose cannon.

- Scoppa accused Sollecito of a few murders in front of Seguin and Thibault

Did it list which he was accused of?

- Scoppa talked about men of honour, saying “A man of honour, for me, is a man of his word who keeps his promises and respects everyone. It doesn’t exist anymore, it’s just wind. Before, in the Mafia, a man of honour was someone who became untouchable because we agreed to include him among us and we support him. A pencil breaks easily. If you take four or five together, it gets harder to break them, huh? That was the principle in the old days. We stand together because we get stronger. Strength in numbers. Even though we don't all like each other, even if we don't always agree, we are stronger together. Let's say you've been successful in life. That you did not succeed at the expense of other people that you could have taken advantage of. You did it right, you were respectful, generous, understanding… For example, every year I gave thousands of dollars [to a foundation] to buy gifts for sick children. Those are the qualities of an honourable man. But that no longer exists here. What you see is greed, selfishness. It's every man for himself. Money is all that matters, it's all there is. It does not matter the means to harvest it.”

I know we can't take everything Scoppa says as fact but him using words like "we" and "us" when talking about Men of Honour implies he was made, at least in his eyes he considered himself a Man of Honour. But it also seems like he's just talking in general about there being no actual honour among them, and not actual Men of Honour.

- Antonio De Blasio plotted to kill Salvatore Scoppa in 2015
- Scoppa said De Blasio was killed “probably” because of the botched hit on Tony Vanelli
- Street gang members mistook Angelo D’Onofrio for Vanelli and shot him to death 2 August 2017
- De Blasio organised the crew that killed D’Onofrio and served as the intermediary with those who ordered Vanelli’s murder

This is the most interesting thing revealed I think. We knew D’Onofrio was mistaken for Vanelli, who parked his SUV outside of the cafe just an hour before the murder. But I never heard De Blasio was behind the murder and was always under the assumption De Blasio was close to Stefano Sollecito and that Vanelli (D’Onofrio mistakenly) was targeted by the Scoppas. It was during the time Rocco Sollecito, Giordano, and Spagnolo were all killed. I doubt he was the intermediary for the Scoppas since just 2 years prior he tried to kill Sal.

Maybe the rumour of D’Onofrio being a semi-retire mobster will stop circulating.

I wonder if “former Calabrian enemies” means in Toronto or if that means the Violis? Dom Violi was talking about introducing the informant to his connections in Montreal, so I wonder if those old beefs have been squashed, especially with Nick Sr and Vito both dead.

Also mentioned Arcadi returned to service, and wasn't he the contact between Montreal and Hamilton. I thought an article or maybe someone here mentioned that before.

[chin_gigante]

- Scoppa accused Sollecito of a few murders in front of Seguin and Thibault

Did it list which he was accused of?

It didn't specify, though in previous chapters Scoppa explicitly linked him to the murders of Moreno Gallo, Gaétan Gosselin, Vincenzo Scuderi, Roger Valiquette, Tonino Callocchia, and Marco Campellone.