Link: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/08/...a-drug-network/Excerpts:Rizzuto’s former right-hand man allegedly running Italy-to-Canada drug network from Sicily after deportationAdrian Humphreys
National Post13/05/08 | Last Updated: 13/05/09 10:19 AM ET
Juan Ramon Fernandez seems at ease wherever he goes, whether sipping espresso in a café in Toronto, serving hard time in prison, representing Mafia bosses in Montreal or threatening a drug baron who owes him money.
Even, it is now alleged, when negotiating with senior mafiosi in Sicily, the birthplace of the Mafia.
As Italian police swooped in on a mob-run drug cartel in Bagheria, a Mafia stronghold outside Sicily’s capital of Palermo, Wednesday, among their main targets was Mr. Fernandez, who has been deported from Canada three times.
Apparently escaping the dragnet, Mr. Fernandez was named as a lynchpin of a Sicily-to-Canada drug network and dubbed “Cosa Nostra’s Canadian ambassador.”
In fact, an Italian prosecutor told the National Post of Mr. Fernandez: “He was taking over in the Cosa Nostra family of Bagheria due to his tight links with the boss, Sergio Flamia.”
[snip]
After his deportation from Canada last year at the completion of a prison sentence, Mr. Fernandez disappeared until police in Canada learned he was living in Bagheria, where he ran a martial arts gym. Always a fitness buff and a black belt in karate, it was a natural way for him to rebuild.
Now 56, Mr. Fernandez seems to have lost none of his dynamic persona.
He fit in there, according to a report in La Repubblica, a newspaper in Italy, like a native.
He would go for long walks around town in designer clothes and meet many people who would pay him respect, the paper said.
Italian police secretly followed him for months, tracking him as he met leading figures in Sicily’s Mafia, including the heads of several Mafia clans. His ties to Mr. Rizzuto, who authorities allege maintains an organization in Italy, would likely aid his introduction.
Police moved against the organization early Wednesday, arresting 21 men in what it called a pact between Palermo and Canada. Nine others remain fugitives.
Mr. Fernandez was one of those not found. Fleeing with him, according to reports, was another Canadian who had come to stay with him.
[snip]
He is also accused of planning to import cocaine directly to Sicily from South America.
Authorities allege the men were part of a reorganization of Mafia clans in response to the previous arrests of other mobsters. Authorities implicated the Rizzuto organization in Montreal as a part of the scheme.
[snip]
Mr. Fernandez was a senior envoy of Montreal’s Rizzuto organization, even though he is Spanish rather than Italian and his lineage prevented him from being an inducted member of the Mafia.
“He was sitting at the right hand of God,” a Canadian police investigator once told the National Post of his ties to Mr. Rizzuto. “He is a perfect gangster,” said another.
[snip]
Mr. Fernandez was denied parole because he was deemed too dangerous to release. Instead, he was held in prison until the end of his sentence and, in April 2012, deported to Spain.
Police in Canada expected to see him back here, eventually.
“Right now Vito is a man in need. There are few people he’d rather have rallying to him than Fernandez,” a veteran organized crime investigator said.
But, if Italian authorities are correct in their allegations, the Montreal Mafia didn’t so much need his muscle in Canada as his presence forging new opportunities in Sicily.
