Link: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/10/..._medium=twitterExcerpts:Sicily wiretaps show how Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto paid for breaking Mafia rulesAdrian Humphreys
National Post13/05/10 | Last Updated: 13/05/11 12:44 AM ET
Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto broke the fundamental, centuries-old rules of the Mafia by formally inducting non-Italians into his Mafia clan, including a French-Canadian and a Spaniard, according to conversations secretly recorded in Sicily.
He may be regretting his multicultural approach.
One of his non-Italian inductees, Juan Ramon Fernandez, who was born in Spain and seen as his rock-ribbed, loyal henchman, was recently killed in Sicily, apparently because he was reluctant to choose sides in Montreal’s deadly Mafia war.
Another, Quebecer Raynald Desjardins, has been named as the architect of the rebellious faction that challenged the leadership of Mr. Rizzuto in Montreal, authorities allege.
The wiretaps were released to the National Post on Friday after a large police operation in Sicily that arrested 21 men on Wednesday.
They shed fascinating and unexpected light on the perplexing and deadly struggle for control of Canada’s underworld — a struggle that has claimed 20 lives — after police in Sicily monitored conversations between dozens of mobsters, including Canadians visiting and living in the birthplace of the Mafia.
Declaring that Mr. Rizzuto “makes the f–king rules” regardless of what Mafia bosses in Sicily thought, Mr. Fernandez asserted his right to sit at the table with other “men of honour.”
“Vito ‘made’ me and my compare, Raynald,” Mr. Fernandez is heard saying on a wiretap, a reference to being officially inducted into the Mafia, a right previously reserved for Italians.
“You’re not Italian,” said the surprised man he was speaking with.
“No, no. Me and my compare,” Mr. Fernandez insisted, were “made” men despite their lineage.
When faced with further disbelief, Mr. Fernandez, who was an intensely intimidating man, started bellowing.
“Show some respect. I sit at the right hand of God, that’s how close I am,” he said of his relationship with Mr. Rizzuto.
“But I thought that…” the man stammered back, apparently realizing the danger, his voice turning quiet and meek, “I just thought you couldn’t because you’re not Italian.”
Even though Mr. Fernandez spoke passionately about the power of Mr. Rizzuto and his affinity for him, he remained reluctant to rededicate his sword to the veteran mob boss in the underworld war for supremacy in Montreal, the wiretaps suggest.
In Sicily, Mr. Fernandez told associates he was close to Mr. Rizzuto but also close to Mr. Desjardins, whom he named as leading the rebel faction challenging Mr. Rizzuto’s control, police in Italy said.
“He didn’t want to take a side in the dispute. He wanted to stay neutral,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Fabio Bottino, commander in Palermo of the Carabinieri R.O.S., the special paramilitary police unit that probes sophisticated organized crime and transnational crime.
The supposedly private chats reveal Mr. Fernandez as a man of conflicting loyalties — he was first brought into the upper echelons of the underworld by Mr. Desjardins, whom he knew from prison but Mr. Rizzuto was the key to his growing power.
[snip]
After Mr. Fernandez was released from prison, in April 2012, he was deported to Spain but moved to Bagheria in Sicily, where he settled among friends, many of whom have ties to the Rizzuto clan, police said.
Mr. Fernandez told mafiosi whom he met in Sicily that he was, in fact, a “man of honour,” meaning a formal member of the crime cartel, even though he is not Italian.
“I don’t think the Sicilian Mafia could say anything to Vito Rizzuto, asking him why he was making guys who were not Italian. The Italian Mafia would be cool to this fact but Vito Rizzuto was the boss in Canada and what he wants to do there, that’s OK,” said Lt.-Col. Bottino in an interview with the National Post.
“What is important to them is what you do in your own home. In my home, in my country, this is the rule, if you want to change the rules in your country, well, OK.”
Because Mr. Fernandez was able to help them make money, the mafiosi did not vociferously complain and investigators do not believe it played a role in his death.
“The order to kill him came from Canada,” said Lt.-Col. Bottino, declining to say which faction might have made the decision. If he is correct, it means the war in Canada stretched beyond its borders....
Fernando Pimentel in Sicily:
http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/fernando-pimentel.jpg?w=400&h=229
