Very interesting article and it definitely adds weight to the claim that there's a Mafia presence in Buffalo. No specifics were mentioned from this article, so it would be a stretch to say that this article alone (from a Canadian reporter no less) discredits what the United States federal government has been saying for years, which is that the Buffalo Mafia is dead.

This article also does not mention the Todaros or anybody from the traditional Magaddino/Todaro organized crime family in particular, so this certainly doesn't vindicate The_Rooster or anybody else... yet.

In a nutshell, this article is Canadian reporters and cops making vague references to the mob in "New York State" and "Buffalo" (not necessarily the traditional Todaro crime family). Remember, police that are actually based in New York State have said that the Buffalo mob and the mob in Western NY is dead. So you'd have to be pretty biased to throw all of that out the window and take this to the bank to mean that the Todaro crime family is active and thriving.

Another thing that's important to note is that Canadian law enforcement are definitely years behind the FBI in terms of investigative power and ability. I don't say that to discredit the hard-working Canadian RCMP, but Canada is kind of like where the FBI was in the early '80s in terms of mob-busting. You'll notice that hits happen left right and center, and they often go unsolved, whereas in the States, mobsters live in constant fear of surveillance and most hits in the past 20 years have been solved. The vague language in this article is another indication that the Canadian LE don't really have a clue what's going on. The article doesn't even really answer whose SIDE the NYS mob is supposedly on.

Do I believe there is a Mafia presence in Buffalo? Potentially and probably yes. I've said before that it wouldn't surprise me if some other group took over where the Todaro mob left off. But do I believe that the traditional Buffalo crime family - i.e. the Todaros, Falzones, etc. - are still running things, business as usual? No, I have not seen any evidence of that and I've seen plenty of evidence to the contrary.

So there we go, Nickle, you've seen "Nicky from Tampa’s response and if he tries to explain this away".