http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/11/...ing-mastermind/When officials in New York and Rome jointly unveiled evidence of mobsters in two of the most notorious crime cartels moving drugs and money across three continents, no one mentioned the strange Canadian connection — Santa’s workshop in Ontario.
Emerging as a central figure in Tuesday’s arrests, accused of forging new links between the deadly, drug-rich Mafia of Italy’s Calabria region and the notorious American Mafia family once led by John Gotti, is a former Canadian resident who made thousands of wooden toys for charity in a prison workshop near Kingston, Ont.
Nicola Antonio Simonetta, who went by the name Tony in Canada, was heralded as the “convict-turned-Claus” for his toy-making charity work. That was in 1985.
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Tuesday, he was accused of being a Mafia member and masterminding a large-scale plot to smuggle heroin and cocaine around the world.
It is not the only Canadian link to the case: Agents say Canada was the planned destination of cocaine being smuggled into Europe from South America.
Also, another key figure, Mr. Simonetta’s son-in-law, Franco Lupoi, 44, claimed he could get anything across the Canada-U.S. border without passing a checkpoint; that the pair have family in Canada who sell large amounts of marijuana; and there are unindicted Canadian conspirators who may seek revenge against Mr. Lupoi for introducing an undercover police agent into the plot, authorities allege.
Further, a man born in Montreal, Eugenio Ignelzi, 38, was among those arrested in Italy.
But it was Mr. Simonetta on whom authorities focused as a key figure forging fresh links between Old and New World mobsters in a police operation codenamed “New Bridge.”
He was born on July 6, 1949, in Gioiosa Ionica, a town up a mountain road from the Ionian coast of southern Italy that is a hotbed of Mafia activity. He came to Canada as a young man, settling near Toronto, and working in construction and masonry.
In 1981, he was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in narcotics and jailed for 14 years. He served much of his sentence in maximum security until arriving at the minimum-security Frontenac, near Kingston.
There, he and two other inmates handmade 2,200 toys in 1984, which were given to hospitals and charitable groups for needy children at Christmas. Mr. Simonetta masterminded that scheme, designing and cutting the wood for the toys, and supervising the painting and finishing. The next year he worked on even more.
“I’m not after money or anything, I’m trying to make kids happy,” he told the Ottawa Citizen, adding he would never sell them, only give them away.
Not long after, he was paroled and deported to Italy. There, he was accused of continuing not as a toy maker but in the drug trade: he was arrested in 2002 for conspiracy to traffic narcotics. In 2007, a local court ordered him to stay in Italy, pending the outcome of his appeal.
Authorities say he was a member of the Ursino clan of the ’Ndrangheta, the proper name of the Calabrian Mafia. He is related to the crime boss of Gioiosa Ionica, Antoni “Toto” Ursino.
With Mr. Simonetta’s rich ties to the ’Ndrangheta and his son-in-law’s links to New York’s Gambino family, the pair worked to build an impressive global drug network, authorities allege.
Mr. Simonetta visited his son-in-law in New York, who introduced him to a purported co-conspirator who was, in reality, an undercover agent.
Mr. Simonetta said he could guarantee unfettered passage of contraband in or out of the Italian port of Gioia Tauro because of a corrupt custom’s official, authorities said. Mr. Lupoi told the agent his father-in-law is cagey — “he’s always playing the safe side,” he said — because of his convictions in Canada.
When Mr. Simonetta returned to Italy, he met significant mafiosi, including the boss’s son, Franceso Ursino. Over two years, police recorded conversations, read emails, and tailed the suspects.
What emerged is a network smuggling the ’Ndrangheta’s heroin to the United States and South American cocaine to Europe through Guyana, with a plan to transship it to Canada. The cocaine was to be placed in dead fish, then frozen into ice blocks.
During meetings, undercover agents bought more than 1.3 kilos of heroin in Italy and another kilo in the United States, as well as a gun and a silencer, authorities say. Another accused was working to assemble a heavily armed crew of ’Ndrangheta soldiers in New York.
In Mr. Lupoi’s meetings with the undercover agent, Canada came up often. On June 5, 2012, he said he could get anyone across the border from Canada.
“No problem. Just let him fly to … He’s gotta be in Toronto or Montreal. They’re gonna come from the Indian reserve,” he said, according to documents filed in court.
The Indian guy that brings them across wants $3,000, but the people that wanted to come here, between my family there and me, we brought it up to [$20,000]
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“The Indian guy that brings them across wants $3,000, but the people that wanted to come here, between my family there and me, we brought it up to [$20,000].”
Mr. Lupoi bought more than 2.7 kg of marijuana from his cousin in Canada and sold it to the agent, saying his Canadian clan could supply up to 135 kg a month, documents allege.
Seventeen people were arrested in Italy and seven in the U.S.; none in Canada.
While the ’Ndrangheta has often worked with U.S. mobsters in the drug trade, it is usually through Sicilian Mafia members in Sicily or Canada. Authorities said this was an attempt to cut out the Sicilian middlemen and link the Calabrian and U.S. organizations directly.
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