While I agree that there is a bigger mob presence in NYC than in TO I think your formula of number of indictments = number of mobsters is flawed. The Greater Toronto area has a population of nearly 6 million an Italian is the #2 spoken second language. Because Canadian police have common sense and allocate more resources to go after street gangs and crack dealers who pose a greater danger to the average civilian than the mob, certainly doesn't mean there is a lack of OC here. Nevertheless I highly doubt there are even half as many mobster in the GTA as there are in NYC.
I guess it depends on what your definition of "lack" is. I'm not saying there is no Italian OC in Toronto. I'm saying that I see little evidence to support it being on the scale that some claim it is. Especially when they start in with that nonsense about the "balance of power" now being in Canada.
You know what's funny? That whole line of thinking more or less started out with the book
The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto.
Fast forward 5 years from when that book was written and we see another example of how authors often exaggerate their topic. The NY Mafia hadn't exactly "collapsed" and the Rizzutos weren't as omnipotent as some had thought.
But now the problem is some are making the same claims about the Calabrians in Toronto.
I see what you mean and I while every author likes to hype up their subject, Lamothe and Humphries were on a whole new level when it came to the Rizzuto's. Trying to get the reader to believe that Vito was some untouchable Don and had a say in every drug deal/extortion/murder that occurred. An they went on and on about Vito's Sicilian connections like no other member of LCN have ties to Sicily.
You`re absolutely right.......although it was a fascinating read, the Rizzuto crime family( Rizzuto-Renda-Arcadi-Sollecito) was thought to be much stronger than they actually were. In the end, they become over-exposed and arrogant, which ultimately lead to their downfall.
Because the Ndrangheta is constantly mentioned by Italian journalists these days, there is the possibility that some people start thinking that the Siderno Group will become the next Rizzuto empire. While there might be some truth to that, criminal organizations are fairly complexe and there are a multitude of players involved.
If we based our knowledge on the Sixth Family alone, we would have never known about other prominent figures within the Montreal mafia which can be a threat to the Rizzuto crime family.
