@CabriniGreen

My long replies to some of your questions are below. I will try to answer the remaining questions later. You always ask good questions -- and I do want to answer them -- but bear in mind that the answers often require evidence or proof that takes me a while to collect and assemble. In some places where I have answered I had to be careful -- or will be careful -- about what I wrote because I don't want to offend certain posters and organized-crime authors/experts, as some of the latter have eventually become friends.

1. During all the years I've been following the mob war in Montreal, I've only come across a few Italian-language articles that were genuine investigative pieces: a few articles about the murders of Joe Bravo and Fernando Pimentel in Sicily, the unconfirmed report that Stefano Sollecito visited Joe Bravo in Sicily (I've since learned that that he and other Montreal Mafia members did in fact travel there to try to talk some sense into Bravo, not necessarily all at the same time), and a couple of articles about the apparently close ties between Carmine Verduci and Rocco Sollecito, who had ties to 'ndrangheta clans of the Locride (the area in the province of Reggio Calabria) (the newspaper promised to look into this connection further, but every time I've checked, there hasn't been any followup).

The rest of the Italian-language articles are timely on occasion -- for example, a significant event has happened here -- but often seem to be written when actually nothing has happened here, as though the newspapers' assignment editors tell the reporters, for no reason at all, to write about the big mafia war in Canada between the 'ndrangheta and Sicilian Cosa Nostra. From an article I saved close to nine years ago, "Canada: scoppia la faida tra cosa nostra e la ‘ndrangheta" (you and others could, if needed, copy and paste what's below in to Google Translate):

Con lo strategico controllo di Montréal i Rizzuto sono diventati tra i protagonisti nel traffico internazionale di eroina proveniente dalla Sicilia e diretta verso gli Stati Uniti. Anche se capaci di diversificare le proprie attività illecite, interessandosi alla cocaina, l’eroina è la stata la base del potere della Sesta famiglia in Canada. I cambiamenti del “mercato” della droga e la centralità assunta dalla cocaina hanno indebolito i Rizzuto, così come tutte le altre famiglie di cosa nostra sia negli Stati Uniti che in Sicilia. Favorendo, al contrario, la ‘ndrangheta calabrese, che nel giro di poco tempo è riuscita ad imporsi come broker internazionale della polvere bianca.

Link: http://www.liberainformazione.org/2...a-faida-tra-cosa-nostra-e-la-ndrangheta/

If anyone wants to see how such articles have proliferated on the Net, just google by first typing "guerra" "canada" "ndrangheta" "cosa nostra" and then adding either "porto" "Montreal" OR adding "cocaina." For kicks, try using or adding the search terms "guerra mondiale" (world war).

You know what else has proliferated (as a result of these articles in Italian)? The spread of misinformation. Moreno Gallo is misidentified as a member of the Siderno Group. Vic Cotroni is called the head of the 'ndrangheta in Canada, and -- of course -- the "war" is all about control of the Port of Montreal.

2. For decades, the 'ndrangheta on the Italian mainland has invested in, among other things, real estate in the Greater Toronto Area, as have of course the Siderno Group members who live in the GTA. (Calabrians the world over are smart; I've met very few Calabrians who aren't interested in at least owning their own house, and the ones that are homeowners often want another house or property from which to derive rental income.) Along with the 'ndrangheta's interest in real-estate investments in the GTA is an interest in putting up buildings, i.e., construction. A hotel here, a condominium building there. Helps launder money in addition to, of course, earning a lot of revenue.

The GTA Siderno Group has a decades-long history of corruption of Ontario's construction industry. Ontario has had its own inquiries like Quebec's Charbonneau Commission, and there are a number of people who think another inquiry is long overdue in Ontario, especially because of suspected links between 'ndranghetisti and Ontario politicians. We also have to recall that Italy issued an arrest warrant for Vito Rizzuto in 2005 on accusations he, along with the 'ndrangheta on the Italian mainland, tried to get their hands on part of the contract to build the Strait of Messina Bridge from Sicily to the mainland. Rizzuto's main contact in Italy was the Calabrian-Canadian engineer Giuseppe Zappia, but I will go out on a limb here and speculate that Carmelo Bruzzese, Francesco Arcadi, and the Montreal Mafia's contacts in the Siderno Group in Calabria also did a lot of the legwork.

In my humble opinion, a Siderno Group attempt to get a stranglehold on the Port of Montreal -- if this criminal group even wants to do so -- will result in needless violence because the West End Gang is already firmly rooted there and has control over what illicit items get in and out, as well as over certain personnel (stevedores and checkers). The West Eng Gang, the Hells Angels, and Montreal Mafia have used the port for decades for drug importation; so an attack on the West Eng Gang could mean the Hells and the current Montreal Mafia leader(s) would lend support to any "war" that ensues by an assault from the 'ndrangheta. Corruption at the port authority is entrenched, but if the 'ndrangheta wants to corrupt officials so as to move contraband, threatening to hurt and kill them are probably very bad ideas. In my view, the 'ndrangheta would instead corrupt officials so as to get involved in the construction projects associated with port expansion.

In the 2010 Operazione Il Crimine arrest warrants, volume 3, there is an important paragraph about Carmelo Bruzzese's tight connections to both Vito Rizzuto and Francesco Arcadi. The paragraph is possibly vague, but it states that, in particular, Bruzzese is committed to bringing to fruition a project involving a complex structure that will become a hospital, using public funds, in a plot of land that he and his other partners already own. The next sentence talks about Bruzzese's partnership with Arcadi. So the natural question to ask is, Was the hospital project in Italy, Toronto, or Montreal? I might have read elsewhere that the proposed site of the hospital was in the US. I reproduce below the relevant paragraph from the arrest warrants, including the sentences before and after what I have just referenced, as well as the paragraph before.

 in Canada, in particolare, nelle città di Toronto e Montreal è operativa una complessa organizzazione criminale di tipo mafioso, composta da più cellule che racchiudono gruppi - famiglie di origine calabrese ed altri di origine siciliana. Il leader di tale organizzazione era, all’epoca, RIZZUTO Vito che, in virtù dei suoi legami con la famiglia mafiosa dei BONANNO e quella dei “CUNTRERA - CARUANA” aveva creato, nell’area di Montreal una struttura mafiosa ben radicata, collegata con quella di Toronto e con l’Italia;

 tale struttura, operativa nel traffico internazionale di stupefacenti, nel reinvestimento dei narcoproventi, nonché nell’acquisizione di appalti di opere pubbliche ed altri delitti connessi, aveva, come detto, stabili rapporti con appartenenti ad organizzazioni criminali autoctone, tra cui, per l’appunto BRUZZESE Carmelo che viene definito nella richiamata ordinanza di custodia cautelare come “il referente della “cellula calabrese” dell’organizzazione, strettamente legato ai vertici dell’organizzazione, in contatto con i più diretti collaboratori di Vito RIZZUTO e con lo stesso capo prima del suo arresto, avvenuto nel gennaio 2004, nonché con esponenti di spicco della criminalità organizzata calabrese. In particolare é impegnato alla realizzazione di un complessa struttura da destinare ad ospedale, utilizzando fondi pubblici in un appezzamento di terreno già di proprietà del BRUZZESE e di altri suoi soci…”. Nel corso delle indagini oltre a documentarsi rapporti funzionali all’esistenza del sodalizio con ARCADI Francesco, indicato dalla polizia canadese come il successore di Vito RIZZUTO (dopo il suo arresto – estradizione a New York), rilevano per l’odierno procedimento i rapporti tra BRUZZESE Carmelo e VERDUCI Carmine che, in ragione delle conversazioni censurate in quel contesto, viene definito in atti “un personaggio già emerso nelle indagini vicino al noto Carmelo BRUZZESE” e che aveva il compito di viaggiare sistematicamente tra l’Italia ed il Canada, fungendo da vettore di notizie tra il gruppo italiano e quello canadese, così come, peraltro, emerso nell’odierno procedimento. Si evidenziava, inoltre, la conferma circa i rapporti pregressi (2004) tra lo stesso BRUZZESE ed ANDRIANÒ Emilio.

3. I do not think that control of either Montreal or the Port of Montreal equates to moving cocaine to New York City. I am trying to get others to see that this takeover theory has taken on a life of its own -- and I know how it has grown legs.

From the October 12, 2017 article found at the Maclean's magazine website:

Vito Rizzuto had a lynchpin role in the importation of narcotics into North America. Getting close to him meant the opportunity to quickly become a millionaire.

The Port of Montreal is one of a few vital entry points for drugs bound for the United States, and Rizzuto had more control over it than anyone else. Once the drugs reached Montreal, his people had to worry about little more than speed limits as they drove the narcotics through back roads and into New York City, the world’s top market for cocaine. A 2006 Canadian Senate report concluded that 15 per cent of stevedores and 36 per cent of checkers who work in the port of Montreal have criminal records, as do 54 per cent of the employees of an outside firm with the contract to pick up garbage and to service ships on the docks.

Cocaine does arrive at the Port of Montreal but cocaine is not then put on to vehicles and driven to New York City -- this hasn't happened for a very long time, and I'm trying to remember how often cars were even used to get the coke across the US border. We know that in the 1980s, the Caruana-Cuntrera were moving a lot of heroin to the US via Windsor; in addition, the clan was moving a limited amount of cocaine to the US by breaching border points.

For many years now, the coke that is imported via the Port of Montreal is apportioned in Quebec and/or the provinces west and east of Quebec, and the end users are coke addicts in Canada. None of the cocaine goes south to the US. From my research, in the last 10 to 15 years there were only two attempts made by criminals to get coke from Canada into the US, and it ended very badly both times.

In the September 28, 2012 article found at https://torontosun.com/2012/09/28/w...wcm/a80d907c-ca9d-49e3-a1e9-b187876bdd21, you will read that the author of the above-mentioned article is quoted in this older article and may have changed his views over the years. Excerpt from the older article:

Since the 1980s, organized crime in Montreal was largely controlled by the Montreal-based Rizzuto crime family, members of which hail from Sicily. However, a Mafia source told JE that before the Ontario-based Calabrians attacked the Rizzutos, they began using Port of Windsor as an entry port for drugs.

Windsor’s port wasn’t a top security priority because it didn’t service shipping containers, unlike Montreal’s port. Security at the Port of Windsor remained minimal, at least compared to ship container ports.

Using multiple ports is a tactic used by the Calabrian Mafia, called the ‘Ndrangheta, according to Mafia expert and author, Antonio Nicaso.

"The strategy is to never use the same port," he said, in order to draw less police attention.

The ‘Ndrangheta use several European ports in cities such as Rotterdam, and Naples.

"And I think that in Canada, (Calabrian mobsters) are using the same strategy," Nicaso said. "Instead of passing through the same port, they are looking to find different routes and Windsor offers a perfect alternative to smuggle drugs into the country."

And the Calabrians seemed to have had an easy time taking over from the Rizzutos, according to Richard Dupuis, former head of the Montreal police’s major crime squad.

From the marketing copy found at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/b...edwards-and-antonio-nicaso/9780345813770 (to be fair, the book's co-authors aren't responsible for writing the marketing copy):

Until Vito Rizzuto went to prison in 2006 for his role in a decades-old Brooklyn triple murder, he ruled the Port of Montreal, the northern gateway to the major American drug markets.