shooting north of Toronto tied to Rizzuto

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/04/20140425-100202.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2014/04/25/suspected_mob_hitman_gunned_down_in_woodbridge.html

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/04/25/...-six-years-ago/


Carmine Verduci - the man who exposed Mafia's 'Canadian cell' - was gunned down near Toronto yesterday
By Adrian Humphreys
Carmine Verduci, 57, was shot several times outside Regina Sports Café in Woodbridge. The gunman seemed to know what he was doing
National Post files

The man shot and killed Thursday outside a cafe north of Toronto had the dubious underworld distinction of having accidentally alerted Italian police to the existence of a "Canadian cell" of the Mafia - about 40 mobsters who maintain close ties to colleagues in Italy.

Carmine Verduci, 57, was shot several times outside Regina Sports Café in Woodbridge. The gunman seemed to know what he was doing; police found the victim lying dead in the parking lot with no need for an ambulance.

Mr. Verduci's downfall may be traced to Feb. 12, 2008, when Italian authorities noticed him in Italy at a meeting of the 'Ndrangheta, the formal name of the Mafia formed in the southern Italian region of Calabria. The presence of a Canadian there concerned authorities.
A New Mafia: Crime families ruling Toronto, Italy alleges1

September 24, 2010

Anti-Mafia prosecutors in Italy probing a powerful international crime network say they have uncovered the new face of the Mafia in Toronto, alleging there are seven dominant mob families in the city, each with a boss who sits on an influential board of control.

The clans in Canada climbed "to the top of the criminal world," Italian prosecutors say, by becoming masters of the global drug trade by establishing a "continuous flow of cocaine" from Argentina.

Further, prosecutors name about 40 men linked to the "Canadian cell" of the mighty crime network; many with "operational links" to Italy and some suspected in an array of crimes there, including murder, electoral fraud, corruption, extortion, theft, money laundering and aiding fugitives.

"In the city of Toronto there existed seven crime families whose members were mostly of Calabrian origin," says the prosecutors' report, a document similar to an affidavit used by authorities to authorize arrest warrants, which was translated from Italian by the National Post. None of the allegations in the report have been tested in court.

"Each of these seven families in Canada would be active in drug trafficking; extortion, only among members of the Italian community; gambling; and the making and marketing of forged material. Many of them have reinvested the illegally obtained money in businesses, including bars and restaurants, not only in downtown Toronto but especially in Woodbridge, which is the new Italian quarter."

Read more…2

An investigation showed he was the 'Ndrangheta's transatlantic messenger: He "had the task of travelling between Italy and Canada, acting as a carrier of news between the Italian group and the Canadians," prosecutors said.

Following him, wiretapping his cellphone and tracing emails, authorities linked at least 40 people who were either Canadian citizens or current or former residents of Canada.

After a two-year probe codenamed Operazione Crimini, prosecutors in Italy unveiled sweeping arrest warrants for several of the men in 2010 which alleged there were seven dominant mob families in the Toronto area, each with a boss who sits on an influential board of control. The indictment made the names of the alleged bosses public for the first time.

On March 8, 2011, the National Post spoke with Mr. Verduci after Italian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him for Mafia association. When his friends around him in a café heard him say he was not involved in organized crime, they thought it was hilarious and spontaneously burst out laughing and guffawing.

He turned to them and curtly told them to shut up. Everyone instantly did.

Continuing the brief interview, he said he was not involved with the Mafia, had never heard of the 'Ndrangheta before and was not at all a bad man.

"I don't know anything about this," he said ending the conversation. "Bye, bye, bye."

The charge against him in Italy meant he could not return there without arrest but did not bring any move for his extradition because Mafia association in not a crime in Canada.

But now, investigators will consider whether the embarrassing and damaging report became a death sentence from fellow mobsters.

The 2,656-page prosecutors' report from 2010 revealed the 'Ndrangheta's operations here.

"In the city of Toronto there existed seven crime families whose members were mostly of Calabrian origin," says the prosecutors' report, which was translated from Italian by the National Post.
Files

"Each of these seven families in Canada would be active in drug trafficking; extortion, only among members of the Italian community; gambling; and the making and marketing of forged material. Many of them have reinvested the illegally obtained money in businesses, including bars and restaurants, not only in downtown Toronto but especially in Woodbridge, which is the new Italian quarter."

The mobsters in Canada "alternate between attending meetings, travelling between Canada and Calabria, and, when they can't attend, are kept informed," prosecutors said.

The Italian report alleged the seven families were run by Vincenzo Tavernese of Thornhill; Cosimo Figliomeni of Vaughan; Antonio Coluccio of Richmond Hill; Cosimo Commisso of Toronto; Angelino Figliomeni of Woodbridge; Vincenzo "Jimmy" DeMaria of Mississauga; and Domenic Ruso of Brampton. The allegations have not been proven in court.
National Post files

At the time, Mr. Commisso told the Post that the report was inaccurate, saying: "It is offensive to me to think that I would do anything like that… I'm not even boss of my house. My wife is the boss of my house."

Mr. Verduci was born in Italy's Calabria region but became a Canadian citizen. He owned several properties, including a new-build suburban house in Woodbridge and a farm in Caledon.

He also owned several social clubs and cafés in the Toronto area, opening and closing them frequently, moving them around the area. Police suspect illegal gambling, not coffee, was his clubs' and cafes' lifeblood. Many were semi-private or members only.
Alleged Mafia boss would receive 'virtually unlimited' money to fund a fugitive life, immigration hearing told3

September 30, 2013

An Italian man arrested in Toronto and now fighting deportation is one of the top leaders of Italy's Calabrian Mafia and controls affiliates in Canada and Australia, an immigration hearing was told Monday.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) also alleged Carmelo Bruzzese, 64, would likely flee rather than face deportation and - in the mob's strange outlaw culture - gain status and honour for it, with mobsters providing "virtually unlimited" money to fund his fugitive life.

At a series of acrimonious and argumentative detention review hearings before the Immigration & Refugee Board (IRB), however, Mr. Bruzzese's lawyer blasted the government's case, saying it is based on faulty information.

Read more…4

Mr. Verduci's favourite saying was "everything alright," but spoken as a statement rather than a question, said a man who did work – of the legal type – for Mr. Verduci.

"He was just arrogant to people, like he was better than everybody. Like, 'I am the boss and you do what I want,'" the man said, asking his name not be published. "Once you got to know him he could act differently and joke around a bit. But for most of the time he had to play the part."

If the unintended fallout from Mr. Verduci's trips to Italy is not behind his slaying, investigators will likely investigate whether his death might be a part of the war between the mob's Calabrian faction, based in Toronto, and the Sicilian faction in Montreal.

The Sicilian faction was led, until his death in December, by Vito Rizzuto. The Rizzuto family suffered heavy losses in recent years, some of them likely by Calabrian rivals, police believe. When Mr. Rizzuto was released from a U.S. prison in 2012, police and gangsters alike braced for his revenge but instead of an aggressive assault against the rival faction, he seemed to focus on purging disloyal elements within his own.

Police will want to know if Mr. Verduci's murder could be a sign of the Sicilian faction's reorganizing and lashing out.

Mr. Verduci was well-connected to a long list of important and influential mobsters, not just in Toronto but also in Hamilton and Thunder Bay, according to authorities in Canada and Italy.

His position within the Calabrian clans of Toronto would make him an attractive target to Sicilian rivals in Montreal looking to make a stand, a police source said.

"We might find it was meant as a message to the Calabrians from the Sicilians, that ‘this ain't over, we haven't forgotten.'"

If that scenario is true, then hope of peace after Mr. Rizzuto's death seems unlikely.

The Italian probe targeted the 'Ndrangheta as it has eclipsed Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's most powerful and richest Mafia organization, dominating Europe's drug trade.

The role of Canada is so pervasive within the 'Ndrangheta that when a mobster in Calabria speaks of "America," he really means Canada, prosecutors said.

Freakin Canada. It's still like the wild west up there .

Love it!

PB:

This particular murder may very well be the most significant gangland hit in the Greater Toronto Area since 1983.

Verduci was more than just a translatlantic messenger between a 'ndrangheta group in Canada and the group's casa madre in Calabria. He was more than just a hitman. Both descriptions have appeared in some articles published in major Canadian newspapers in the last two days.

There may be serious and violent repercussions as a result of this murder. I fear for the bloodshed that may follow.

You have absolutely nothing to fear. They know you're just a citizen.

i agree...but one 1 italian report (ill try to find it again) suggested this might have been a calabrian hit, hinting the old rizzuto family is now controlled by calabrian families, and this hit suggests in fighting within the clans for control of montreal and more importantly the port.

interesting but not likley.

sonny black and antimafia: do u think the rizzuto family has enough clout to pull something like this off?

dont they know each each of the calbrians have about 300 cousins, uncles, nephews back in siderno, waiting for a chance to strike. lol

Is it possible that this may just be Calabrian housecleaning with no Montreal connection? Or is that unrealistic?

trophydave:

1. Hard to tell from your post above whether you're genuinely seeking posters' opinions or whether you're posing questions to which you already know the answers anyway. For example, I can't figure out whether you're suggesting that non-'ndrangheta criminals or crime groups would never dare double-cross, assault, deceive, or kill a Siderno Group member in Canada.

2. The Siderno Group in the Greater Toronto Area is, for me, the most interesting Italian crime group to research, but most of my posts—on this type of forum and others—are about the Montreal Mafia, past and present.

3. At the risk of my sounding like a broken record, the excerpted information in an older post of mine to which I've linked below is an example of how I interpret the collaborative relationship between the Italian underworlds of Toronto and Montreal for the past 40 years.

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post666947

The quest I've been on for the last few years is figuring out how the previously close relationship between the Siderno Group and the Montreal Mafia has changed—and why.

Entirely realistic, mike68, but a murder nevertheless shocking if internally sanctioned because of how high up Verduci appeared to have figured in the hierarchy of the Toronto-area Siderno Group.

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2014/04/25/suspected_mob_hitman_gunned_down_in_woodbridge.html

According to this article, the answer to my question may be a resounding no. Rizzuto retribution is suspected.

http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2014/04/img-20140424-wa0000.jpg?w=620&h=464

Here is the photo, not as graphic as the Moreno Gallo, but still, broad daylight, these people don't mess around.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/04/26/striking-fear-in-the-heart-of-ontarios-mob

Who's in charge now since rizzuto passed away ???

The main candidate is Rocco sollecito

The Calabrians control the Rizzuto's now?
And here I throught the Toronto Ndrangheta was composed of a couple of gold toothed, bearded barbarians with just enough braincells to sell untaxed cigarettes from the trunk of a car in a joint venture with equally gold toothed, bearded bikers. A former poster, a high ranking associate of the still powerful Buffalo family, recently cleared that up

/me chuckles.

That is one outstanding mustache though.

Tom Selleck'd be proud.

That would make porn stars jealous.

He kind of has a Ron Jeremy look going.

ANYWAY, nobody knows whose running the Rizzuto faction currently, although there are some good (and probably accurate) guesses. domwoods is probably on the money here, he would be my guess as well.

My question is what's going to happen with the drug trade ties to Sicily now the Rizzutos are all but finished -- In terms of the Rizzuto blood ties to sicily, I mean... the faction itself is probably fine. Do the deals made under Nick/Vito automatically transfer to whomever takes over? Or will they have to renegotiate with their Sicilian counterparts? I have no idea how this kind of thing would work in this type of power vacuum situation.

Some Canadian mob experts are speculating its possible Vito may have been looking to the new generation to take over the reins (Pierre De Champlain) but I honestly don't see any evidence of this occurring and there are probably a half dozen men that have been waiting in the wings so to speak, for their opportunity to take over.

The mob is used to these changes. It happens often. Arrests, deaths. So I guess the deals they had before stay - there is too much money involved.

Please refer to the recent topic I started at

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...1542#Post861542 (Canadian suspects in Italian antindrangheta bust).

I'll try to post again in this current thread tomorrow but, for now, I'll provide this link to a very detailed Italian-language article about the bust:

http://www.newz.it/2015/09/28/ndrangheta...-e-roma/237595/

The article suggests that the murder of Carmine Verduci may have been the result of internal frictions within the 'ndrangheta group in the Greater Toronto Area, i.e., the Siderno Group.

This is what I've been wondering as well:
In like 1994, the Caruana-[BadWord] family got a 5400 kilo load of coke siezed.
Now can you see the RIzzutos being able to arrange such a load in the new world order of MExican Cartels and Calabrian control of cocaine?
I'm sure the Rizzutos still hold their MOntreal territory, but their strength was always moving large drug lots, so where do they fit in today?
In operation, what OLd bridge? You had Cali (royalty for the Sicilians basically)procuring coke for a coalition of Sicilian families,
Yet by operation NEw Bridge, it appears the coke has to go through the, Mexicans and Calabrians, what I never got was who was getting the coke on the other end, calabrians or Sicilians.
Are the Calabrian moves in New York a response to Increasing crackdowns in Italy, as well as Mexicans moving into Europe, as Well as having to deal with territory disputes in CAnada?
I always kinda interpreted the switch from MOntreal procuring the drugs lots, to New York as something significant, esp when I saw the genovese queens bust, it's like the strongest families in NY were looking to maybe get back some of that action, but you guys seem more versed in CAnada, thoughts?

Also, Cali's food companies, plus access to the docks seem to make him a prime contractor to get drugs from the U.S. To Italy, but where would his loyalty lie, with Sicily or with profit?

I think this likely, he was hit in their territory...

Anyone care to speculate why the mafia in Canada seems mostly contained to two provinces? Biker gangs spread across the entire nation, but the mob never seemed to move farther west than Ontario.

Back in the 90's you'd hear rumours of the "Corydon Street Mafia" here in Winnipeg all the time... But in retrospect it seems like a rumour that started because a bunch of italian business men hung out at a social club next to one of their bars on Corydon Avenue.

When i got older and went off to university, I looked through hundreds of local papers dating back to the early 1900's trying to find anything printed about any sort of mafia presence in Winnipeg and found virtually nothing. There was one hit that had suspected links to italian OC in Ontario but that was back in the 1980's and it was the only reference I could find.

As a native Winnipegger I find this hilarious.

You never heard those rumours? I lived right off Cordyon near Stafford as a kid so it was a pretty regular topic of conversation around there. I stopped hearing about it altogether early in the 00's, though. I guess most of those business that were attributed to the "mafia" were sold off. I heard a couple years later almost all the Corydon strip was owned by bikers and asians. No idea how true that is.

I was actually friends with an Italian kid who lived a couple blocks down from me who once claimed his dad was in the mob. I made fun of him once (I forget why, we were maybe 10 or 11) and he threatened to get them "after me". Like 20 years later and I'm still waiting.

Like I said, though, I looked into it as best I could and found nothing, at least nothing in print. I suspect there was a social group of italian business men who may have enjoyed the "myth" of their supposed membership in the mob. The social club is still there.

Man who worked as paid agent for RCMP tells court he was not involved in murder of reputed mobster Carmine Verduci

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...-of-reputed-mobster-carmine-verduci.html

Wow they paid a dry snitch $2.5MM I 2 years??
That is over $1MM a year.and they still find anything out for the most part.

I didn t think they really even cared about O.C. I Canada?

probably in canadaian dollars 😂