Canada at gunpoint, the great war for the control of coca in the port of Montreal: a long trail of blood between bosses of Italian origin Canada-investigation: the drug war for control of the port of Montreal is bloodying the country
July 29, 2023 at 07:00 2 minute read
Canada at gunpoint, the great war for the control of coca in the port of Montreal: a long trail of blood between bosses of Italian origin You don't need followers, who are many (37,000), to tell the figure (and the genesis) of the murder of Claudia Iacono, mother of two, killed at 39 in Montreal at 4.28 pm on 18 May last. Parking of the Salon Deauville between Jean-Talon and De La Savane streets in Montreal, six shots fired while the woman is parking the SUV in the "Il Triangolo" shopping area. Mafia ambush. Doubts? Zero.
Because more than social networks are related: Claudia was the wife of Anthony Gallo, daughter-in-law of Moreno Gallo, boss of the Canadian Cosa Nostra, in the past historically linked to the Rizzuto clan (later betrayed by him) killed on November 10, 2013 in Acapulco with nine shots gun from a killer dressed in black who surprised him at the table (at dinner) in the "Forza Italia" restaurant. Three months ago, Leonardo Rizzuto, son of the boss Vito escaped an ambush on the provincial highway 440 in the jurisdiction of the Sûreté du Québec. Two of him shoot 6 9-gauge shots at him, the side of the Mercedes GLE 53 becomes Swiss cheese, they wound him in the shoulder and chest, he manages to continue his run by hiding in the parking lot of a funeral home. Miraculously alive.
Courses and appeals. Bullets bouncing from field to field. Blood calling for blood. Keep an eye on the dates: November 10, 2010 - the same day and month as Gallo - Nick Rizzuto was killed. He was having lunch at home in Montreal, a sniper shot him with a precision pointer. A sniper. He died at 86 years old. Exchange of rude anniversaries, one might say.
For Canadian investigators - ca va sans dire - the track sinks into this never dormant war between Calabrian and Sicilian criminals, a decades-long "question and response", interspersed with fragile mafia pax that roots in times when - that is - the Rizzuto organized the "Sicilian takeover" in 1978, of the Montreal mafia by the Cotroni organization, people from Calabria. A feud with losses (dozens of dead) for both groups: bosses, solicitors, traffickers and drug dealers, businessmen and half-socks: lead does not question origin and rank.
Antonio Nicaso, essayist, university professor of organized crime in Quebec
But is this enough? Is the ancestral call of revenge, the revenge DNA of mafia and para-mafia groups enough to explain the long trail of blood that colors the map of crimes in North America? It really seems like no. Antonio Nicaso, essayist, university professor of organized crime in Quebec, appropriately widens the compass and his analysis converges with that of several investigators. At stake would be control of the port of Montreal, a "central port of call for the drug market from (and to) New York," he says. Immense spaces, boundless businesses that perhaps also tell why - in these parts - between 2017 and 2019 seven drug traffickers were killed. Detail: based on personnel and investments in the port in question - and until recently - only 20/25 containers were checked per day: less than 1% of those landed on the docks from all over the world. And then there is the soft underbelly of border territories: Indian reservations where there is no national sovereignty. "They are ideal corridors for transporting drugs and weapons." It is no coincidence that the Canadian route is considered one of the most appropriate for attributing the so-called "virginity license" to containers with respect to the risk parameters used by the border police in investigating shipments also linked to transit ports.
"Moreover - adds Nicaso - there is the theme of synthetic drugs in whose trials Canada is the leading country in the world". Another planetary business. “By now in North America, Fentanyl has completely supplanted cocaine. They are very strong drugs and they cost less - explains the teacher - they have synthesized heroin, they are synthesizing cocaine with pink cocaine, they have synthesized cannabinoids with a much higher thc and a lower cost than, for example, that guaranteed in countries where marijuana has been legalized.
The 'Ndrangheta is not competing for this world: an equation, this, betrayed by the official papers that disengage the Calabrian group of the Rizzuto clan from a pure affiliation. Instead, there is a criminal "melting pot" that records "Calabrian, Sicilian, Apulian and even French-Canadian components," says Nicaso. And the 'Ndrangheta? He doesn't participate in the war, he dribbles in midfield and observes: «Clearly, if the Calabrian component of the Rizzutos were to win, they would benefit from it». But the surnames that return – Mammoliti, Montagna, Violi, Luppino – are only descendants. Far enough away for no one from Calabria to intervene to stop the hostilities.
