"There are competing theories about why Musitano was gunned down, some revolving around an unpaid debt and rivalries between Niagara mobsters and influence from the Buffalo mob."

Last December, bodies were left hanging from a bridge in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. One was rumoured to be Ranieri. Then came more rumours that Ranieri had faked his own death and ordered associates to spread the false rumour that his was one of the bodies left to hang.

Drug cartels in Mexico often hang bodies of murder victims as a warning to others.

But Ranieri's body was not one of those. He was executed and found bound in a ditch months later. It isn't clear who killed him or why. But police and mafia experts say it may be connected to the ongoing mafia violence in Ontario.

"It's pretty significant that he was bound and hog-tied in the ditch, the cartel has a way of killing people, decapitating, hanging from bridge ... acid in a barrel," Metelsky says. "But this seems like custom to order hit."

The details of Ranieri's death were hard for police to confirm. He had been living under the name Diego Ramirez Diaz. Police in Canada got wind of Diaz's death, but were having trouble confirming Diaz was actually Ranieri.

Police needed to corroborate Ranieri's death, so a team from Project SCOPA flew there this summer. There, they were able to confirm the body was Ranieri's through fingerprints.