Does anyone know who is the boss now that Vito Rizzuto is facing trial and almost certain conviction for racketeering in the U.S.?

franchesco arcadi.

Thugging, x-man:

Forum member Laurentian had pointed out in one of his posts from a while back -- before the arrests in Montreal -- that Vito Rizzuto, although in jail in New York, is still boss until he says so otherwise. This policy is also observed by other crime families that operate in the American Mafia tradition and whose boss is indicted, awaiting sentencing, in prison, etc.

Francesco Arcadi, who previously was the Rizzuto organization's street boss in Montreal, had assumed the title of acting boss after Rizzuto's extradition to New York. But Arcadi was among those arrested recently on Nov 22.

Other important members of the Rizzuto clan who were also arrested include Vito's father, Nicolo, who some organized-crime experts maintain has really been the leader of the Rizzuto organization all along; and Paolo Renda, Vito's brother-in-law and Nicolo's first cousin, who has often been labeled as the consigliere (although I've sometimes seen Nicolo being given that label).

After Vito Rizzuto's extradition in August of this year, the Quebec media in particular speculated who might succeed Vito as acting boss. However, organized-crime experts pondered the answer to that question even before Rizzuto was extradited.

I became aware of the three likely candidates only this past October by reading a French-language article published online by a Quebec newspaper. Those individuals identified in the article were Arcadi, Giuseppe "Jos" DiMaulo, and Moreno Gallo, all three of whom are of Calabrian descent.

I, along with most members of the Canadian public, do not know whether the RCMP arrested Di Maulo and Gallo -- likely candidates to lead the Rizzuto organization given the arrest of Nicolo Rizzuto and Renda -- because the RCMP have made public only the names of individuals who are still being sought. By searching for news stories, one could make a list of those who have been arrested so far and those who are still wanted (which can also be accomplished by visiting the RCMP Web site), but one would still not come up with the names of the 90 to 92 people for whom arrest warrants had originally been issued.

del

Thugging, everyone else:

We may now have a well-informed answer as to who the acting heir to the throne will be.

Thank you, Laurentian.

The French-language article below is currently online at http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/ottawa/...y-Rizzuto.shtml.

Transaction sous écoute électronique
Mise à jour le mardi 12 décembre 2006, 10 h 24

L'immeuble Vincent Massey, boulevard Saint-Joseph, dans le secteur Hull à Gatineau, est vendu à des intérêts régionaux

Les hommes d'affaires Pierre Heafey et Sam Choweri ont payé un dollar pour ce bâtiment évalué à 37 millions. Il doivent également assumer les dettes de 2,5 millions de la compagnie de l'ancien propriétaire et l'hypothèque restante de 11 millions de dollars.

L'immeuble qui loge 1500 fonctionnaires fédéraux appartenait à un entrepreneur qui aurait des liens avec le présumé chef de la mafia italienne, Vito Rizzuto, arrêté dans le cadre de la vaste opération antimafia qui a eu lieu au Québec en novembre dernier.

Les enregistrements réalisés pendant trois ans par écoute électronique révèlent entre autres que Vito Rizzuto connaît bien l'ancien propriétaire de la Place Vincent Massey, Guy Marc-Aurèle, et sa compagnie Duroc.

Les enregistrements révèlent aussi que Duroc aurait fraudé Revenu Canada pour 460 000 $ et que cet argent aurait disparu dans des compagnies à numéro.

Le mois dernier, M. Marc-Aurèle a décidé de vendre l'immeuble de 21 étages aux hommes d'affaires de Gatineau Pierre Heafey et Sam Chowerie. La transaction est survenue une semaine avant la rafle policière.

L'homme d'affaires Pierre Heafey soutient qu'il s'agit d'une pure coïncidence. Il affirme qu'il n'a jamais été mis au courant des liens entre Duroc et le crime organisé.

The article below, currently online at http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/yr4/YR_News/T...p-4432015c.html, is not about recent events concerning the Montreal Mafia but, rather, about the fate of associates going a few years back.

Please note CFL is the acronym for Canadian Football League (American football). Gaetano Panepinto, mentioned below, was wrongly believed by law enforcement to have been the Rizzuto organization's representative in Ontario, Canada, while the Rizzutos sought to expand their interests there. However, those of you who have read The Sixth Family... know that Panepinto, who was not even a made member of any Italian organized-crime group, was not influential at all and seemed to act only as an enforcer or bodyguard for Vito Rizzuto when he was in the Greater Toronto Area.

Former CFL player awaits sentence for dealing ecstasy
Jan 3, 2007
By Joe Fantauzzi, Staff Writer

Gus Alevizos will wait until next month to find out how long he will spend in prison for trafficking ecstasy after a sentencing hearing Tuesday in Newmarket.
Mr. Alevizos, 43, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs. He has been linked to sales of at least 500,000 pills.

The Crown is asking he be locked up for four years.

The former CFL player was the 32nd arrest in Project RIP, an investigation involving several forces and launched by York Regional Police after the murder of Gaetano Panepinto in 2000.

It was initiated during a string of investigations into drugs and organized crime in York Region.

A one-time associate of Raymond Juan Fernandez, who was a major player in the Montreal Mafia, Mr. Alevizos ran an ecstasy ring.

After a falling out, rumoured to be over missing money, Mr. Fernandez put a contract on Mr. Alevizos, going as far as to give a gun to a police agent.

Mr. Fernandez's arrest stopped the hit. He is serving a 12-year sentence for gangsterism.

Mr. Alevizos was linked to the ecstasy ring through multiple calls caught on police wiretaps.

In her address to Justice Michelle Fuerst, Crown Attorney Rosemary Warren referred to Mr. Alevizos as a "high, high value wholesale dealer".

"He is dealing in hundreds of thousands of pills throughout the course of this investigation," Ms Warren said.

The Crown alleges Mr. Alevizos supplied drugs to those who, in turn, dealt to street-level drug pushers.

Since his arrest more than four years ago, Mr. Alevizos has been under house arrest but has been allowed to work.

He manages a motorcycle shop and does service work there.

Mr. Alevizos' lawyer, Joseph Bloomenfeld, said any relationship between his client and Mr. Fernandez is not relevant to the case.

He asked the court to consider that Mr. Alevizos, who played professional football in Toronto, Edmonton and Winnipeg, has obligations to his family, including caring for a disabled son.

Mr. Bloomenfeld also asked the court to consider his client's medical problems, which include morbid obesity, hypertension and sleep apnea. He asked the court to return Mr. Alevizos to "his home as soon as possible having done what justice requires".

In a statement to the court, Mr. Alevizos said his focus is working at the motorcycle shop.

Justice Fuerst is to render her decision Feb. 7.

Laurentian:

I am certain I made an error when I posted the information above in reply to thugging and x-man and am hoping you can answer a question for me and others on this Forum.

I argued Francesco Arcadi became acting boss of the Rizzuto organization after Vito Rizzuto was extradited to New York in August 2006. However, I neglected to take into account that Rizzuto had been in prison in Quebec since January 2004 awaiting to find out whether he would be extradited.

Therefore, would Arcadi have been made the acting boss shortly after January 2004? I note that The Sixth Family... , which was released last summer, does not address the matter and, in fact, referred to Arcadi as the street boss for the Rizzuto organization in Montreal.

How long after January 2004 would law enforcement and organized-crime experts have determined when an acting boss was named?

Thank you, in advance, for any answers or opinions you may offer.

Article below, currently online at http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...3ee58c6&k=29945, is about an associate of the Rizzuto organization who was denied parole. That is, he was not among those arrested last November in the RCMP sweep of the Montreal Mafia.

Career criminal denied parole after meeting mobster while on leave
Serving 33 years for drug trafficking, money laundering
PAUL CHERRY
The Gazette

Saturday, January 20, 2007

An associate of the Rizzuto family has been turned down for parole, in part because he can't shake an old habit of looking up fellow mobsters.

Sabatino (Sammy) Nicolucci, 59, is serving a 33-year term for trafficking drugs and laundering money for the Montreal Mafia.

His career as a criminal is a long and storied one that includes being kidnapped by members of a Colombian drug cartel in 1994 because he refused to pay $1.7 million for drugs the mob considered to be of poor quality.

According to a previous National Parole Board decision, Nicolucci is alleged to have purchased 280 kilograms of cocaine for Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia. Nicolucci was out on parole for a 1985 drug-smuggling conviction while he was working on the cocaine deal.

Rizzuto is currently facing a racketeering case in New York, where he is accused of murdering three mobsters in 1981.

After being kidnapped to Colombia, Nicolucci worked out a deal that saw him toil for the Colombians. But he was extradited to Canada in 1996 and received the combined sentence he is currently serving.

Canadian authorities wanted Nicolucci back because he had been snared in an investigation where the RCMP set up a phony money exchange counter on Peel St. to gather evidence as organized-crime figures brought in their drug money to be cleansed.

Last week, Nicolucci went before the parole board for the first time since 1997, when he was convicted of 168 counts of money laundering and four counts of drug smuggling. He was denied both day and full parole.

A written summary of the decision, made public yesterday, notes Nicolucci was suspected of using unescorted temporary releases to hook up with an old associate. The leaves had been granted to give Nicolucci a chance to visit his mother and an aunt. But an investigation turned up evidence he frequently saw "a friend who has connections with organized crime." The friend is not identified in the summary.

In September, Correctional Service Canada cancelled Nicolucci's leaves and a work-release program in which he was taking part.

The parole board is required to review the case in two years.

Article below, currently online at http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.h...5a-c4ff4be01c7c, is related to the one found three posts earlier.

Saved, then sentenced
'Big Gus' is the last in a Mob-connected drug ring to face justice after escaping 'woollen bullet'
Adrian Humphreys in Newmarket
National Post

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Constantin "Big Gus" Alevizos rarely missed an opportunity for profit and so, when a duffle bag of cash went missing from the home of his best friend--a feared Mafia enforcer who had been murdered near his Toronto mansion -- suspicion quickly fell on Alevizos, who had just visited the grieving family. It was a miserable bag to be holding.

The estimated $600,000 inside was swag belonging to the most powerful Mafia family in Canada, and when this alleged duplicity became known, true or not, it brought Alevizos an underworld death sentence.

Lucky for Alevizos, the hit man was actually a police informant.

Quick intervention by police saved Alevizos' life but, in turn, offered its own challenge; he was arrested in 2001 for a massive drug conspiracy that revealed mobsters and bikers working together.

Yesterday, Alevizos was sentenced in a Newmarket court to three years in prison for his role in the drug conspiracy, the last of 32 co-accused to be sentenced-- without a single trial held.

Alevizos, a former professional football player, represents the beginning and the end of a complex police operation that significantly hampered the expansion of the Montreal Mafia into Ontario, shut down one of the largest Ecstasy vendors in Canada and sparked the recent arrests of some of the biggest names in crime.

Despite the hurly-burly, Alevizos remains a mountain of calm.

"I've had a lot of people not like me," he told the National Post, dismissing suggestions he stole any cash and shrugging when asked about him being marked for death by the mob.

"I'm afraid of only two things in life: God and my mother."

Given the enormity of the evidence presented to Justice Michelle Fuerst in this underworld saga, it is doubtful either would approve.

"Big Gus" came by his nickname honestly. He was once described by a witness as the "biggest man I've ever seen" and by police as a 6-foot-6 male weighing 460 pounds.

As a young man, Alevizos put his size to productive use, as an offensive lineman with the Guelph Gryphons, the Ontario university football team he captained in 1987 and 1988 while he studied history and sociology.

He then turned pro, drafted by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and later the Edmonton Eskimos and the Toronto Argonauts. After three largely unproductive years in the pros, he took the seemingly incongruent jobs of substitute history teacher and nightclub bouncer.

It was in the dark, noisy clubs of Toronto's Entertainment District that he encountered the drug Ecstasy. The interest would consume him.

In the meantime, he became a partner in a Toronto fitness club, Rhino's Gym. The gym boasted a membership of 2,000. Among the regulars was one of Alevizos' closest friends, Gaetano Panepinto.

A large man, but far trimmer than Alevizos, Panepinto was tight with outlaw motorcycle gang members, mafiosi, and high volume drug dealers.

He signed on early with the Rizzuto organization, the powerful Montreal based Mafia family, when it started moving into Ontario, which gave him tremendous influence in the underworld; his added swagger could not be concealed, certainly not from astute detectives with York Regional Police.

Panepinto drew wider attention when he started a storefront outlet for Casket Royale in Toronto's Little Italy, selling discounted coffins. He offered designer themes -- such as denim-covered caskets with cowboy decorations --and used, as a somber marketing ploy, an offer of free children's coffins. Police believe he was hiding cocaine in some of the caskets being shipped into Canada.

Alevizos was now at a nexus: From his nightclub gigs he knew the intense demand for Ecstasy; through his busy gym, he had an ideal distribution point; and through Panepinto, he was hooked tomajor criminals. It proved too potent a mix.

Despite Panepinto's power and value to the Rizzutos, no one is indispensable in the Mafia. When he overstepped his authority on a matter of family honour, his boss cut him loose, police say.

Panepinto was only a few blocks from his upscale Toronto home on Oct. 3, 2000, when a van pulled up beside his Cadillac. He was hit by a fusillade of gunfire. When police checked the licence plate on the bullet-riddled car, they found it registered to Rhino's Gym. Looking at the size of the savaged body behind the wheel, officers quickly assumed it was Alevizos.

Police even visited his wife. When she was told that her husband was dead, she was more amused than sad.

"No, he's not," she replied, according to a police source.

As a close friend, Alevizos went to pay respects to Panepinto's family. Soon after, the bag of cash went missing and there was an uproar in the underworld from Toronto to Montreal.

"Everyone was blaming everyone for taking the missing money," said a police investigator. It did not take long for someone to pin it on Alevizos.

While Toronto police investigated Panepinto's murder, York police launched a probe to see who filled his void. Panepinto's death offered them a code name -- Project R.I.P., for "rest in peace."

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Rosemary Warren, a veteran prosecutor, sat down in the RCMP's large building in Newmarket to review an application for a police wiretap.

On behalf of Project R.I.P. investigators, she was seeking a judge's permission to install electronic listening devices --called "wires" by police--on the telephone lines of several targets. Her work was interrupted.

In the chaos that morning, after two hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, police worried about other potential terrorist targets. The RCMP building was evacuated. Ms. Warren continued the work at home, watching the events on television.

After the wiretaps were turned on, one of the first voices investigators heard was that of Alevizos.

"Just had a phone call from Joe Bravo," Alevizos said to one of his close associates on Oct. 16, 2001, while police secretly listened. Alevizos seemed upset that Bravo was suddenly involved in a deal he was putting together. He wanted to know why Bravo knew his business.

"Well, because it's at this degree, they had to know," came the answer.

That call stood out to police among all the chatter about debt collections, pill sales and stolen goods. Here was a guy who needed to be told of meaningful drug deals, to whom tough guys like Alevizos grudgingly demurred, and who received a cut of the profits from everyone's deals.

They had just found Panepinto's replacement.

Although the name meant nothing to them, when Bravo's own voice was caught on the wiretap, it was a familiar one to York investigators. "Joe Bravo" was an alias for Juan Ramon Fernandez, a career criminal who was a senior confidant of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia.

That the Spaniard was even in this country was a puzzle to police who had, months earlier, deported him under armed escort.

The presence of Fernandez took Project R.I.P. in a new direction, making it a probe of national significance.

Police had another break. A former drug courier had agreed to work with authorities in return for money and a judicial break. He was moving with Fernandez as he shuttled back and forth between Toronto and Montreal.

After some friction and much underworld tattling, Fernandez lost patience with Alevizos in May, 2002. Police believe the missing bag of cash remained the root problem.

Fernandez passed a dirty sock to the undercover agent, a man he took to be an assassin. The woollen sock bulged to accommodate a pistol and a handful of bullets. He gave the order: Kill Big Gus.

Officers reluctantly wrapped up Project R.I.P. to save Alevizos' life.

Police arrested Fernandez in his SUV on Highway 407. Alevizos was picked up at his gym, where police found $13,275 hidden in boxing gloves. Another 30 people were arrested in Ontario, New Brunswick and New York State.

Before they were turned off, the Project R.I.P. wiretaps had spread to Montreal, where their contents helped officers launch an investigation of their own, Project Colisee, that was unveiled this November with the arrest of the alleged leaders of the Montreal Mafia, a probe trumpeted by the RCMP as "one of the most important police operations in the history of Canada."

As he was handcuffed and led from the courtroom yesterday, Alevizos knew he would not be gone long.

Justice Fuerst agreed to recommend he be considered for early parole as soon as possible because of his "morbid obesity" and other health complaints.

Article below, found online at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/20.../drug-bust.html, is about a drug ring that has alleged ties to the an outlaw biker gang and the Rizzuto organization. Please note Ottawa is the capital city of Canada.

Ottawa-based cocaine, ecstasy ring busted
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 | 4:56 PM ET
CBC News

An Ottawa-based drug trafficking ring that moved dozens of kilograms of cocaine a month has been busted and the alleged ringleader has been arrested, police say.

"We can guesstimate, but it is believed that the organization in a month would [distribute] between 30 kilograms of cocaine and 50 kilograms of cocaine," Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Pierre Gauthier told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, following police raids at four Montreal properties on Monday.

Those and January raids at eight Ottawa-area sites led to the arrest of 18 people, including Giuseppe Battista, 38, who was based in Ottawa's Barrhaven neighbourhood and headed the ring, police allege.

Police found $55,000 in cash in Battista's home.

"The Battista organization is a large organization that has been going for years," Gauthier said.

Police said it was based in Ottawa, but had links with Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Police said the ring was broken by an undercover operation dubbed "Project Bulldawg" that combined the efforts of the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and the police services in Ottawa and Montreal.

During the 16-month operation, police seized $1.2 million in assets such as cash, cars and real estate; six handguns, a Taser (stun gun); and a variety of drugs that they say had a wholesale value of $985,330 and a potential street value of more than $3.3 million, including more than:

*22 kilograms of cocaine.
*12 kilograms of ecstasy.
*729 grams and 176 plants of marijuana.
*97 pills of Viagra.
*73 pills of anabolic steroids.

Police arrested eight people during the Jaunary raids and another 10 people since then.

Battista has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and more than a dozen other counts.

He and the other suspects together face 138 drug, weapons and criminal activity charges.

The French-language article below, located at http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070214...67/5173/CPDROIT, is related to the article above. This article below indicates that the drug ring had ties to the Hells Angels. It also appears to indicate that Project Bulldawg was stopped when investigators realized someone in the drug ring was targeted for murder. If Laurentian or any other French-speaking Forum member can clarify, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Le mercredi 14 fév 2007

La police démantèle un vaste réseau de drogues

Un important réseau du crime organisé, qui aurait écoulé jusqu'à 50 kilogrammes de cocaïne chaque mois dans les rues d'Ottawa, a été démantelé au terme d'une enquête de 16 mois.

La Police d'Ottawa, en collaboration avec la GRC, la Police provinciale de l'Ontario et le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, a dévoilé hier les résultats du Projet Bulldawg entrepris au mois de novembre 2005.

Réunis au poste de police de la rue Elgin, les représentants des corps policiers ont annoncé qu'ils avaient déposé 138 chefs d'accusation contre 18 individus, dont 16 d'Ottawa et deux de Montréal.

La police a affirmé qu'elle avait de bonnes raisons de croire que cette organisation structurée était associée à une filiale des Hells Angels et à la famille de Vito Rizzuto de Montréal.

Dans sa rafle, la police estime avoir mis la main sur la tête dirigeante du réseau d'Ottawa, soit Giuseppe Battista, âgé de 38 ans. Ce dernier a été arrêté il y a quelques semaines en compagnie de Nicholas Kyriacopoulos puisque des enquêteurs craignaient qu'ils allaient bientôt éliminer un de leurs membres (qui a lui-même été arrêté dans le cadre du projet).

And here's another English-language article, from today, related to the two previous posts. It is found at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...PStory/National.

Ottawa drug ring 'very well organized,' police say
GLORIA GALLOWAY
Feb 14, 2007

OTTAWA -- The alleged kingpin of a complex drug-running network that spanned from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal lived in a modern, two-storey home in suburban Ottawa -- the kind of place where you would expect to be greeted by a hockey dad.

But instead of a minivan, he drove a flashy black sports car.

And, judging by the types of guns confiscated from his associates, any shots being fired had nothing to do with pucks and nets.

The group was "very well organized," Inspector Gary Meehan of the Ottawa police told a news conference yesterday. That enabled "a hierarchy of associates to conduct hands-on business of drug trafficking and debt collection" under the direction of a leader who had "layers of subordinates."

Guiseppe Battista, 38, was taken into custody on Jan. 22, an arrest that marks what police say was the beginning of the end of one of the largest organized-crime schemes ever uncovered in the nation's capital. He was charged with a slew of crimes, including participating in a criminal organization, weapons offences, drug offences and conspiracy to commit murder.

Another 17 people were scooped up by police in the hours and days that followed, the final two arrests coming in Montreal on Monday. Collectively, they face 138 charges.

The police had been watching Mr. Battista and his associates for 16 months. They were particularly interested in his friendships with members of the Hells Angels and the famed Rizzuto crime family in Montreal -- two of whom are among the accused.

When the network appeared to have links to cities beyond Ottawa, members of the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP and the Montreal Police Service were called in to help in what the law-enforcement agencies came to call Project Bulldog.

Mr. Battista is alleged to have brought drugs in from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, which police say he sold locally.

Using electronic surveillance equipment, they have amassed a case against the gang that was responsible for putting a sizable amount of cocaine onto Ottawa streets, they say. The police seized more than 22 kilograms of cocaine, along with smaller amounts of crack cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, Viagra and steroids.

They also collected six handguns and a telescoping taser device, as well as more than $1.2-million in assets that they say were obtained through the proceeds of crime. That haul includes two homes owned by Mr. Battista.

Staff Sergeant Mark Pinault said he and his fellow officers believe Mr. Battista had been involved in drug-trafficking operations for more than five years.

But Staff Sgt. Pinault said he wasn't startled to find this type of operation in a suburban neighbourhood. "There's plenty of criminals still living out in the burbs. I don't think anybody should be surprised at that."

del

del

Suspected Mafia underboss boasts of $1-billion sports betting network

WILLIAM MARSDEN, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, March 06, 2007

An alleged Mafia underboss was running a sport bookmaking syndicate through which almost $500 million flowed in a period of only 11 months.

Police say Francesco del Balso, 36, ran 25 bookmaking operations in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto that del Balso himself boasted did more than $1 billion in business.

In Quebec, del Balso and his partner Lorenzo Giordano, 43, operated Internet and telephone sports gambling out of houses in Kahnawake, Montreal and Laval.

According to newly released court documents, the bookmaking shop in Kahnawake did $391.9 million in business from December 2004 to November 2005.

Of that amount, the gamblers lost $165,469,210 and won $147,829,478, according to an accounting study made by gambling expert Andy Durno.

All the bets were made through a website called World Sport Centre (betwsc.com).

Police say del Balso paid out $750,000 in operating costs, leaving him with a profit of about $17 million.

Many of the bettors were given lines of credit and codes with which to make their bets online. Del Balso had his finger on every aspect of the business.

Del Balso controlled the books, recovered money from losers and paid off winners, established credit margins and decided who was allowed to place bets and get credit, police say.

Collecting from losers was often the hardest job. Del Balso complained that while he paid his winners immediately, losers generally took some persuasion.

Wiretaps picked up del Balso griping about gambler Stewart (Stuey) Goldstein, who apparently owed del Balso $1.6 million.

"I am gonna have to go break his head," del Balso told two friends on Sept. 2, 2004.

Another gambler named "Dino" owed $100,000 and del Balso told him on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006, that he wanted his money by the weekend. Dino replied that del Balso owed him $17,000 and still hadn't paid, which angered del Balso.

"Bro, there's no f-----g book in the city that doesn't belong to me, you know that. ... I have a f-----g book that's worth $50 million and you're telling me about $17,000. But you know how much we take? A billion dollars in action. You think I'm a f-----g clown or something, bro? I built a f-----g empire. What are you talking about 17 dimes ($17,000)? I spit on 17 dimes."

Dino: "I never called you a clown."

Del Balso: "I'm going to send my partner Lorenzo (Giordano) to talk to you. What the f---. Bring my f-----g money to me by the end of the week. I don't want to hear no story."

Del Balso himself was a compulsive gambler who dropped millions of dollars at the Montreal Casino.

He even played his own book and at one point had trouble making a $1,000 telephone bet on a St. Louis Rams football game because his clerks claimed they didn't know who he was.

"What's the password?" the clerk asked him.

"What password? It's me TT221," del Balso replied.

"Who is it?" the clerk asked.

An impatient del Balso replied: "It's the owner, Frank. Jesus Christ."

The documents indicate del Balso and Giordano worried they had too much cash.

"The cash, you can't do nothing, bro," del Balso said.

"It's worth dick, man," Giordano replied. "I wake up screaming in the middle of the night, bro."

Del Balso tried to launder millions of dollars through the casino, but kept losing money.

As one of the casino's high rollers, from 1996 to 2004, he bought $8.6 million in chips, but got back only $2.5 million in cheques.

Most of the balance he appears to have lost at the gaming tables.

Police charged del Balso and Giordano last November with drug trafficking, illegal gambling, money laundering and gangsterism. They were part of a takedown of 91 alleged Mafia members.

Giordano also faces an attempted murder charge.

Del Balso is in jail awaiting trial, while Giordano is a fugitive.

wmarsden@thegazette.canwest.com

del

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...18aa0d3&k=89204

Note that the reference in the article to St-Leonard is to the part of Montreal in the east end of the city. Although Montreal does have a small section deemed to be its Little Italy, St-Leonard is the true Little Italy in the city, where Italian organized crime has operated for decades.

RCMP translator alleged to have sold secrets
Paul Cherry
The Gazette

Saturday, August 04, 2007

A civilian employee of the RCMP who had access to sensitive information involving investigations on organized crime is being investigated for allegedly leaking secrets.

According to published reports, the man worked for the Mounties for more than 20 years as a translator and specialized in translating wiretaps of conversations made in Italian. The report alleges the man, a St. Leonard resident who is in his 50's, sold secrets to members of organized crime....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2007/...393394-sun.html

Sat, August 4, 2007

Mountie surveillance expert charged with selling secrets to the Mob
UPDATED: 2007-08-04 01:58:32 MST

By SUN MEDIA

[snip]

Angelo Cecere, a 50-year-old visually impaired civilian employee, has worked for decades for the RCMP, listening to sensitive police wiretaps, translating them from Italian, and interpreting them for police.

Sources say Mounties learned their reports were being leaked to criminals and set up a sting operation that led to Cecere's arrest for breach of trust....

del

In this post and the next I am posting links to articles in Italian, and parts of the articles themselves, cowritten by Italian-born organized-crime writer Antonio Nicaso, who made Canada his home more than 15 years ago. Am looking very forward to the publication of the biography he has co-written with Quebec-based journalist André Cedilot and Toronto-based journalist Peter Edwards -- see Laurentian's post above for more information about this book.

http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/Bo...nection/1874528
Boss connection
di Marco Lillo e Antonio Nicaso

(15 novembre 2007)

È uno degli uomini più ricchi del mondo: il suo gruppo caseario fattura 4 miliardi. Ma ora i magistrati vogliono fare luce sul ruolo di Lino Saputo nel riciclaggio tra Italia e Canada. E spuntano rapporti con il padrino Bonanno

Lino Saputo era felice come un bambino il 27 ottobre scorso. Maria Grazia Cucinotta, strizzata in un tubino scuro, quella sera al Plaza di Atlantic City gli stava consegnando il premio della Cnsa, la Confederazione dei siciliani del nord America: "Ecco a voi il miglior imprenditore dell'anno, il primo produttore di latticini del Canada, il terzo negli Stati Uniti". Il re del formaggio sorrideva ai 700 italiani. Ad applaudirlo c'erano l'ex ministro Enrico La Loggia, il console d'Italia a New York, il deputato di Philadelphia Salvatore Ferrigno, l'assessore siciliano Santi Formica e tanti altri. A braccetto con l'altro premiato, l'attore Ben Gazzara, assaporava al volgere dei settant'anni la dolce discesa della vita. La mente andava alla lunga salita affrontata per essere su quel palco: l'infanzia in Sicilia, il piroscafo che nel 1952 lo porta da Montelepre, il paese del bandito Giuliano, fino all'America.

Gli inizi con il padre, la bicicletta per consegnare 10 chili di mozzarella al giorno, la crescita, la quotazione in Borsa a Toronto, il boom dell'ultimo decennio che ha decuplicato il fatturato fino a 4 miliardi di dollari e gli utili a 400 milioni l'anno. Lino stringeva al cuore quella targa perché era un riconoscimento alla storia dei Saputo. Non poteva sapere che il nome della sua famiglia, impresso sul 35 per cento della produzione casearia del Canada, sulla squadra di calcio di Montreal e sullo stadio avveniristico della città, proprio quel nome a 4 mila miglia di distanza, era finito nel mirino della Direzione distrettuale antimafia di Roma coordinata da Italo Ormanni.

Cinque giorni prima, il 22 ottobre, la Dia di Roma, guidata dal colonnello Paolo La Forgia, ha arrestato 16 boss e colletti bianchi del clan di Vito Rizzuto. Le indagini dei vicequestori Silvia Franzé e Alessandro Mosca sono durate due anni e hanno colpito duramente la connection tra il Canada e l'Italia. A 'L'espresso' però risulta che l'ultima pista investigativa percorsa dal nucleo di polizia tributaria di Milano porta proprio ai rapporti tra Rizzuto e i Saputo. Il capitano Gerardo Marinelli e il maggiore Vincenzo Andreone hanno intercettato tra il 2005 e il 2006 l'imprenditore Mariano Turrisi, l'uomo di Rizzuto a Roma, mentre tentava di riciclare 600 milioni di dollari mediante la cessione proprio a Lino Saputo del suo gruppo Made in Italy, destinato a operare nel settore del lusso. Saputo non è indagato, ma l'operazione (vedi articolo a pag. 47) ha nuovamente acceso il faro sui suoi rapporti con la criminalità.

Qualche mese prima degli arresti, il pm romano Adriano Iasillo ha scritto una lettera riservata alla Polizia interforze del Canada: "La Guardia di Finanza ha intercettato conversazioni dalle quali si capisce che è in corso un'operazione di cessione del gruppo Made in Italy all'imprenditore canadese Lino Saputo per la somma di 600 milioni di dollari americani di cui 300 sarebbero destinati direttamente alla famiglia capeggiata da Vito Rizzuto (...) sarebbe estremamente utile acquisire ogni dato che provi il collegamento tra Saputo e Rizzuto". Alla richiesta del pm italiano non è giunta alcuna risposta. 'L'espresso' ha svolto una ricerca negli archivi del governo canadese e dello Stato di New York, nei vecchi rapporti della polizia e dell'Fbi, scoprendo una serie di documenti che provano i trascorsi rapporti di affari tra Saputo e la storica famiglia Bonanno di New York, della quale proprio il boss Rizzuto è oggi il rappresentante in Canada....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/MA...-nostra/1874547

Made in Italy è cosa nostra
di Marco Lillo e Antonio Nicaso

Agganci politici tra Roma e gli Usa. E tanti soldi. Così l'imprenditore Mariano Turrisi cercava accrediti per riciclare 600 milioni. Lo hanno arrestato per mafia

(15 novembre 2007)

C'è anche il senatore a vita Giulio Andreotti tra i contatti italiani vantati dall'imprenditore Mariano Turrisi, arrestato per mafia il 22 ottobre scorso. L'uomo che seguiva per conto del boss Vito Rizzuto un'operazione di riciclaggio da 600 milioni di dollari, raccontava spesso di avere ottenuto un incontro con il senatore a vita. Ma Turrisi faceva di tutto per ottenere un riconoscimento ufficiale del ruolo della sua società Made in Italy, spendendo soldi e nomi con grande facilità. Si era legato ai Savoia, diventando vicepresidente del loro movimento politico e pagando l'affitto della sede romana, perché erano un ottimo biglietto da visita. Assieme a Emanuele Filiberto era stato a New York in cerca di relazioni eccellenti. E proprio negli States si era fatto fotografare con il rabbino Ronald Greenwald, già consigliere dell'ex presidente Richard Nixon. Un personaggio influente sui due lati dell'Atlantico.

[snip]

Nel 2003 Vito dice a un collaboratore: "Mariano è un mio socio, abbiamo fatto delle cose insieme". Nel settembre 2005, dopo l'arresto di don Vito, Turrisi vola a Montreal per vedere il figlio del boss, Nick junior, e il cugino, Frank Campoli. Un mese dopo i due sono intercettati mentre parlano dell'operazione Made in Italy ed esprimono dubbi sulle capacità di Turrisi nel portarla a termine. Ma Turrisi ce la mette tutta. Dal suo ufficio di fronte a Palazzo Chigi contatta finanzieri libanesi e consulenti Usa di primo livello. Sostiene di avere un filo con la Metro Goldwin Mayer per fare un parco divertimenti ispirato all'Italia a Las Vegas, vive tra Cannes e l'hotel d'Inghilterra. Lo finanzia il socio Rodolfo Fedi fiducioso nell'arrivo della grande somma. Turrisi gli dice: "Il re del formaggio (Saputo, ndr) ci darà 600 perché lui non deve sapere, ha detto la famiglia, prenderà la metà"....

Drug Traffickers Tied to Montreal Mafia?

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...cce557b&k=62691

Cops arrest 10 in café drug bust
Paul Cherry
The Gazette

Friday, November 30, 2007

Ten people were arrested Thursday night during a Montreal police operation where six cafes were raided as officers targeted a drug trafficking network they allege has ties to the Montreal Mafia.

Eight of the people arrested have already been released on a promise to appear in court at a later date. But two, a man and a woman, were held in custody and are expected to appear in court Friday afternoon on charges of
possession of drugs with the intent to traffick.

The arrests and search warrants were carried out as part of Operation Nanti, an investigation by the Montreal police morality, alcohol and drug squad....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.cjad.com/news/565/630119

Police Dismantle North-End Drug-Rings
Fri, 2007-11-30 12:51.
Kathy Coulombe

Montreal police have dismantled a couple of drug-rings, operating in Montreal's North-End. Police say one of them had ties to the Italian Mafia. They raided 6 Italian cafes last nite; seizing 5 ounces of cocaine, 3.5 ounces of marijuana and 32-hundred dollars in cash. Ten people were arrested in that operation.. and face charges of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, drug-trafficking and conspiracy.

The second operation (last Friday) involved a smaller drug-ring described as a well-structured Italian cell; but the investigation found no link between the 2 groups targeted by the two police operations.

Police say the 5 individuals arrested in that case (Antonio Scarfone, 48; Michele Gaudiosi, 33 ; Jason Libertella, 32 ; Anthony Scarfone, 21 and Michele Fiocco, 22 ) were dealing mainly in the Ahunstic-Cartierville and Parc-Extension districts. They've been charged with drug possession for the purposes of trafficking and conspiracy. That operation also led to the seizure of 1 kg of hashish, 1 kg of cocaine and 34-thousand dollars in cash.

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http://www.yesmontreal.ca/ignitionweb/data...linocropped.jpg lino saputo .jr


http://images.forbes.com/media/lists/10/2006/QJXG.jpg lino saputo the father

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Link to the Canadian Press article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears further below.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/285052

Saputo founder invites RCMP to talk about Mafia

December 12, 2007
THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL – Lino Saputo, the founder of Canada's largest dairy-processing company, is inviting the RCMP to talk to him about allegations linking him to the Italian Mafia.

"I invite them to come and see me so that, once and for all, I can clear away the cloud hanging over me," he told The Canadian Press in an interview in a posh downtown Italian restaurant today.

Saputo, still chairman of the board of Saputo Inc. (TSX: SAP), added that Italian or Canadian authorities have never asked to talk with him.

[snip]

A recent article in the Italian magazine l'Espresso says Mariano Turrisi was arrested by police Oct. 22 in connection with a plan to launder $600 million for Vito Rizzuto, the alleged head of the Montreal Mafia.

The article was co-written by Antonio Nicaso, a Canadian journalist considered to be a Mafia expert.

In a wiretapped conversation, Turrisi discusses "the king of cheese" with another suspect who was arrested by Italian authorities.

Saputo said he doesn't know Turrisi, has "never met, never seen and never talked" with him.

"And personally, I never had anything do with Vito Rizzuto, neither commercially nor socially," Saputo added.

"We've met in a couple of restaurants, at a couple of receptions and I have very rarely met him in a social situation."

Turrisi also registered a company in the United States called Saputo Enterprises.

"I learned yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon that there was a company registered in Florida called Saputo Enterprises Inc., he said. "We have nothing to do with this company."

Italian investigators have asked the organized crime unit of the RCMP for information about Saputo.

But the Mounties won't comment on the Italian investigation because the case involving Rizzuto is still before the courts.

[snip]

RCMP Cpl. Luc Bessette confirmed the Mounties worked with Italian authorities in the arrest of Turrisi, described as the "front-man for Rizzuto in Italy".

"We won't give any details on how we helped," he said. ``However, we were involved in that investigation and we did lend a hand to Italian police.

"We can't comment on their file. . . it's up to them."

[snip]

One of Canada's wealthiest businessmen, Saputo described how when he first arrived in Canada in 1952 he convinced his father to start a cheese factory.

"We worked day and night to build what we have," he said.

"It hurts me to see that certain people think because you're Italian or Sicilian and are successful, it's because you're part of the Mafia.

"But you can't change people's mentality."

Saputo also pointed out that he sat on the board of the National Bank for 10 years.

"Do you think that someone who has a criminal record or who acted improperly could be a member of the board of a Canadian bank?. . . I was a member for 10 years."

Saputo said he has hired a firm of Italian lawyers to take a closer look at the article in l'Espresso and he hasn't ruled out legal action.

"I've always believed in justice, I've always believed in common sense," he added.

Vic and Frank Cotroni: Meeting with Meyer Lansky

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...e2-808799c80493

Cotroni summit sent FBI into frenzy
Gangsters' trip to Mexico to consult with financial whiz Meyer Lansky sent law enforcement scrambling from Montreal to Acapulco

PAUL CHERRY
The Gazette

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Recently released FBI documents reveal new details behind a trip that Frank Cotroni and his brother Vincenzo made to Mexico in 1970 to meet with Meyer Lansky, the notorious American gangster.

The documents, obtained by The Gazette through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, show the intense interest U.S. law-enforcement agencies had in the meeting between the Cotronis and Lansky, who was the basis of the Hyman Roth character in Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Godfather: Part II.

All three men have since died. Lansky, a mathematics whiz and gambling expert, died of lung cancer in 1983 at age 80. Vincenzo Cotroni, the head of the Montreal Mafia for several years, died of cancer a year later at 73. His brother, Frank, an underboss in the same crime organization, succumbed to cancer in 2004 at 72.

That their meeting took place in Acapulco was already known. It has been mentioned in books on organized crime; and a 1970 newspaper report alleging that Quebec lawyer Raymond Daoust took part in the meeting touched off a small scandal in Canada. (Daoust died in 1983).

But the memos and dispatches, issued to the Gazette, reveal how the FBI's interest in the Cotronis' trip to Mexico skyrocketed when the agency learned that they were to meet with Lansky. The FBI's near-

rabid interest in Lansky caused at least three law-enforcement agencies to trip over each other in their efforts to find out what the summit was all about.

The investigation began with a request from the RCMP's Montreal-based C-division. Early in January 1970, it asked the FBI to monitor the trip after learning through a wiretap that Frank Cotroni and several of his associates were heading to Mexico.

"We are not requesting coverage during their stay, however American authorities may have an independent interest," the RCMP wrote in what turned out to be a huge understatement. Weeks later, the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) learned through "a reliable source" that Lansky planned to meet "members of the Dasti group" in Mexico.

The "Dasti group" was an apparent reference to Frank Dasti, a Cotroni associate and convicted heroin dealer. Because of this, BNDD investigators initially believed the meeting involved a large-scale drug deal. That was highly unlikely: According to Robert Lacey's 1991 biography, Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, Lansky limited his illegal activities to gambling....

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U.S. Announces Extradition of Three Defendants From Canada...
http://www.dea.gov/pubs/states/newsrel/nyc012308p.html

Girolamo Sciortino Granted Day Parole

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...50369a7&k=90553

Man with mob links gets parole
Paul Cherry
The Gazette

Friday, January 25, 2008

A man with alleged ties to the Montreal Mafia was granted day parole today after relenting and revealing a little about his ties to organized crime.

The last time Girolamo Sciortino, 66, appeared before the National Parole Board he was denied a release on his 16-year sentence because, during a hearing on Feb. 5, 2007, he repeatedly minimized his role in cocaine and heroin trafficking plots in Cornwall, Ont., and in the United States.

In the past, Sciortino claimed he was minor player in the conspiracies but evidence gathered by police suggested he was actually a leader.

This time around, Sciortino was a little more forthcoming.

"I was heavily involved in organized crime before, but I have changed a lot," Sciortino told parole commissioners Paul Mercier and Denis Couillard during a hearing at a minimum-security penitentiary in Laval. He began serving his sentence in January 1999.

[snip]

Sciortino is described in a police intelligence summary as "affiliated with the Montreal Mafia, the Rizzuto Clan."

In fact, he is part of the "Rizzuto Clan" through marriage as his son Bernardo is married to Bettina Rizzuto, daughter of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia. The couple were married in 1995, the same year Sciortino was arrested for drug trafficking out of a hotel in Cornwall.

Mercier asked Sciortino to define his association with the Rizzutos, beyond his son's marriage to Vito Rizzuto's only daughter, a lawyer. Sciortino was born and raised in Cattolica Eraclea, the same Sicilian village Vito Rizzuto is from....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.yorkregion.com/article/68102

Mobster shot dead
Regional News
Jan 31, 2008 03:13 PM

By: Joe Fantauzzi, Staff Writer

A man convicted in a Newmarket court less than a year ago of ecstasy trafficking was shot dead in Brampton last night, according to Peel Regional Police.

Gus Alevizos, 44, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in ecstasy and had been tied to at least 500,000 pills, had been sentenced to three years in prison and was reportedly recently released to St. Leonard’s Place, a halfway house in Queen Street East and Dixie Road area of Brampton.

Peel Regional Police got a call at about 10 p.m., spokesperson Const. Wayne Patterson said.

When police arrived, they immediately determined Mr. Alevizos’ injuries were life-threatening.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, Const. Patterson said.

Mr. Alevizos was not murdered inside St. Leonard’s Place, Const. Patterson said.

“It happened to him and then he came to the home,” Const. Patterson said. “As soon as he came in the doors, the staff there realized he was in trouble and called us.”....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=TorontoHome

Thu. Jan. 31 2008 3:48 PM ET
Reputed mobster killed at Brampton halfway house

Peel police are investigating the region's third homicide of the year after a reputed mobster was shot at a Brampton halfway house on Wednesday night.

Constantine (Gus) Alevizos, 45, was found in the common area of St. Leonard's Place with a gunshot wound and other injuries to his abdomen and back shortly before 10 p.m., police said.

Alevizos was taken to hospital but pronounced dead. An autopsy to determine the exact cause of death is scheduled for Friday.

[snip]

Alevizos has longtime connections to organized crime and was among those rounded up in a raid following the 2000 assassination of mob enforcer Gaetano Panepinto, who was gunned down outside his Etobicoke home, the Toronto Star reports....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_19164.aspx

Man Gunned Down At Halfway House Had Mob Ties
Thursday January 31, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff

Constantin "Big Gus" Alevizos, a former university football star who enjoyed a brief stint with the Toronto Argonauts, was shot dead at a Brampton halfway house on Wednesday night. He was 44.

[snip]

The burly ex-footballer was the target of a planned hit in 2001 after he was suspected of stealing $600,000 from a mob enforcer's home. The plot was foiled by police, but the message was loud and clear --- Alevizos was a marked man. He was also apparently being targeted by an Asian gang who felt he ripped them off on a deal....

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.mississauganews.com/article/10805

Murder has ties to organized crime
2008-01-31 14:48:10.000

A drug dealer who six years ago was the target of a hit ordered by a Mississauga mobster was shot dead in Brampton last night.

Constantin “Gus” Alevizos, 45, was suffering from gunshot wounds when he was found just after 10 p.m. outside St. Leonard’s Place, a halfway house on Queen St. E. where he was serving out his time on drug-trafficking convictions.

Peel Regional Police are trying to trace the man's movements and figure out where he was shot. Investigators suspect he may have been driven to the halfway house after being shot. Police have no suspects.

Alevizos, a former Mississauga resident and Toronto Argonaut football player, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to traffic in ecstasy and was sentenced to three years in prison by Madam Justice Michelle Fuerst.

Back in 2002, court documents say, Alevizos had been the target of a hit ordered by Mississauga mobster Juan Ramon Fernandez, 47.

But, Fernandez was arrested when the man he tried to hire to commit the murder turned out to be an undercover police agent.

Fernandez was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2004 after pleading guilty to counselling to commit murder. He also admitted to conspiring with Montreal's notorious Rizzuto crime family and the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang to import 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, using a forged passport, possessing a counterfeit credit card and defrauding a bank.

Fernandez, a Spanish national who has twice been deported from Canada, was living in Mississauga under the name Joe Bravo when he was arrested.

Police said Fernandez was the point man in a major operation that saw motorcycle gangs import large amounts of cocaine for distribution in Ontario and Quebec....