The port is everything. I know some of the Canadian guys know some of the Boston guys and they have connections in New York but I also know that at one time at least the West End guys were stick up crews who pulled off some of the most audacious heists in Canadian history as well as one or two in the US.

Lot of the Irish crews at one time appeared to be heavily involved in heists and even when you think back to guys like Trigger Lee Burke who was sent to Boston from New York to track down the Brinks Mat armored car robbers there appears to be the links too and the IRA funded their cause by doing the same in cities around the globe.

Now I know the West End Gang aint really all Irish, they have lots of French guys around too and are pretty tight with the Hell's Angels. But one thing one of their old guys did say was that they didn't have as big an Irish mob as Boston cos they didn't have the same amount of Irish in the city but what they did have was tight knit and low profile so I think FF you got that right on that account.

One thing one one of the Hell's Angeles said and I cant remember where I saw this was that they preferred the West End guys and the Irish to working with the Rizutto's or whoever the fuck the LCN clan happens to be.

But though they say they was never as big as the Irish mob in Boston they was at one time more succesful. As recent as 2002 Matticks was seen by some as one of the leading men in the Montreal underworld.

I mean, you control the port you control the flow of drugs in the city. Bet the mob would love to have their own guys in that port. In a way they do of course as they work very closely with the West End Gang but things aint always been plain sailing between the two for sure.