Mafia increases influence Eastern Borders of Canada
New Delhi Times 4/7/17
Organised criminal networks have been on the rise in Canada, and have been intensifying their activities in Toronto and Montreal in particular. Such criminal groups are often engaged in a scramble for turf and influence across Canada. The article assesses the group dynamics at play in the key cities of Montreal and Toronto that, along with changing drug markets, could produce shifts in crime patterns and alliances between groups.
Canadians learnt details of the government’s plan to legalise and regulate the sale of marijuana in mid-April 2017, when a draft bill was published. If approved by the Canadian Parliament, the federal legislation should be a reality by July 2018. Legalisation was a campaign promise of the governing Liberal Party during the 2015 election campaign. Unveiling the bill on 13 April 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that legalising marijuana would hinder young people from accessing the drug, increase sentences for those supplying to minors, and take away profits from organised crime.
Amid the legalisation campaign and with new rights pending, the Canadian newspaper National Post reported that the 31 March murder of small-scale criminal Antonio ‘Tony Large’ Sergi in his driveway in Toronto had shown links between the medical marijuana industry and organised crime groups in the city. The case involved the unionisation of cannabis growers and urban cultivation operations. This not only challenged the reputation of the industry, but also posed various questions about the actual state of the drug trade – including but not limited to marijuana – in Toronto and nationwide, according to the resulting media coverage.
A pilot study suggested that “cannabis incidents were less likely to be identified by the participating agencies as benefiting organised crime compared to incidents involving other drugs”. However, a feature of organised crime groups in urban settings such as Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal has always been their adaptability to market demands, especially the drug market.
There is no evidence that the cannabis market is dominated or controlled by large-scale organised crime groups. Nonetheless, an assessment of the illicit drug trade in Canada could help predict the likelihood of future shifts of power, if any, among various organised crime groups
Historically, perceptions and the reality of organised criminal activity have varied across the various regions and provinces of Canada. Urban centres – especially Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver – were “considered to be the primary criminal hubs, with both the largest concentration of criminal organisations, as well as the most active and dynamic criminal markets”, according to a Canadian Parliament report of March 2012.
Vancouver – in the west of the country – has experienced a ‘solitary’ evolution of organised crime phenomena, particularly linked to its proximity to California and Washington states, according to the same report. Toronto and Montreal – in the east – have been of interest for law enforcement given their proximity to New York state and their easy access to European markets.
Although Toronto and Montreal have largely independent organised crime groups and markets, the relationships between criminal networks in Toronto and those in Montreal have been scrutinised by law enforcement more closely since the 2000s as power dynamics have changed among ‘traditional’ (family-oriented and ethnic) organised crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs). Developments within the organised crime environment in both cities appear to determine the national and international affairs of Canada’s organised crime groups and their associated markets.
Montreal – a city with a population of 1.6 million – is the most populous city in the Quebec province and the second-most populous in Canada. It has often been a stage for street violence and killings, symptomatic of conflicts between various criminal groups. Montreal has “an Americanised type of organised crime … that tends to be segregated”, because organised crime in the city “is not about power; it is about territory and distribution and the control of importation of drugs .… No one wants to be the boss”, according to analysts of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
This situation largely arose after the December 2013 death of Vito Rizzuto – the head of the Italian or traditional mafia who was influential in maintaining power structures between organised crime groups. There are three main criminal groups operating in Montreal: the remaining structures of the ‘Sixth Family’ of Italian descendants, once headed by Rizzuto and increasingly eroded by law enforcement intervention; OMGs, in particular the Hells Angels, which dominate cocaine importation; and multi-ethnic ‘street gangs’, including groups of Asian and African origin, which are interested in controlling territory for drug distribution. At the higher levels of distribution and importation are the Italian clans and the Hells Angels
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The structure of the Sixth Family – referring to the Five Families (Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese) of New York City – has evolved over time. With historical connections to the influential Bonanno crime family in New York and the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana mafia clan (a powerful clan from Agrigento), Rizzuto’s criminal network was powerful for several decades. Its rise began in the 1980s with the demise of the Calabrian faction of the Bonanno crime family in Montreal – the Cotroni crime family. A mafia feud in Montreal culminated in the revenge killing of Nicolo ‘Nick’ Rizzuto in 2010, but the authority of the Rizzuto crime family in Montreal – largely autonomous from both New York and Sicily – was well-established.
One of the characteristics of the reign of Vito Rizzuto was “his ability to bring people from different areas of Italy together”, including former Calabrian rivals, on the basis of business rather than shared ethnicity, as noted by the RCMP. The RCMP was aware of the existence of ‘a table’ where the major players in the drug world would meet and where Rizzuto would use his charisma and influence to settle disputes outside his own network. Rizzuto’s influence as the leader of the Italian mafia in Montreal was unmatched after his arrest in 2004, release in 2012, and death in 2013.
Project Colisée – a major RCMP investigation into the mafia in 2006 – severely depleted the ranks of the Sixth Family. During the anti-drug trafficking Projects Magot and Mastiff in 2015, Leonardo Rizzuto, one of Vito’s sons, and Stefano Sollecito, Vito’s likely successor, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs. Their trials were ongoing at the time of publication. Project Clemenza, an operation targeting two crime groups in the city after a wave of violence between 2007 and 2011, led in 2016 to the arrests of about 70 people linked to the Italian clan and considerably weakened the Sixth Family’s influence, according to the RCMP. Following Project Colisée, there was “a fight for power” between Montreal’s various crime groups, none of which was influential enough to take control, according to RCMP sources.
Alongside the weakening of the Italian crime families following Project Colisée arrests and the death of Vito Rizzuto, law enforcement in Montreal witnessed the rise of the Hells Angels OMG. The Hells Angels became the dominant group in the cocaine trade, with remaining Italian clans even buying the drug from the biker group. Occupying a space between street mafia and subcultural phenomena, the Hells Angels is not the only OMG in Montreal, with others including the Nomads and the Rock Machine, connected to the Montreal chapter of the Hells Angels.
With leadership changes in the Sixth Family, the role of OMGs in drug importation has drastically changed. Historically, the Italian clans dominated drug importation using well-developed international connections, while the Hells Angels took care of high-level distribution, often in agreement with the Italian clans. After the weakening of the Italian mafia, and aiming to preserve the business, OMGs strengthened their worldwide contacts through their international chapters. They often used Italian connections, but under the aegis of the Hells Angels as the city’s strongest group.
The Hells Angels controlled the methamphetamine and marijuana businesses, alongside a major portion of the cocaine market. However, Project SharQc in 2009, which resulted in the arrest of 156 Hells Angels members according to the RCMP, severely affected the group’s internal organisation, feeding the segregation and implosion of the group into smaller cells and more diffuse networks.
The last set of groups operating in Montreal are the four or five street gangs that are heavily involved in drug dealing and street crime. Their activities often fall beneath the RCMP’s radar and are dealt with by the local police, the S?reté du Québec. These gangs vary in ethnicity and composition and include primarily African Canadian, Haitian, Hispanic, Latin American, and Middle Eastern gangs, as well as other gangs of Asian ethnicity including Indian and Pakistani. The relative power of the street gangs frequently shifts, stemming from the atomisation of territories and changes in gang leadership because of deaths, murders, and law enforcement activities.
Toronto’s crime groups
Toronto – the provincial capital of Ontario – is Canada’s most populous city with more than 2.5 million inhabitants. The RCMP has identified about 200 groups in Ontario that meet Canada’s legal definition of organised crime. Toronto is the main hub for most of these groups’ activities, followed by Hamilton. About one-quarter of these 200 groups are traditional organised crime groups, essentially meaning Italian mafia-like groups, mostly of Calabrian and Sicilian origin, according to the RCMP. OMGs – in particular the Hells Angels – are also active in the city, as well as street gangs of different types, notably of Iranian and Jamaican origin.
However, despite Toronto’s similarities with Montreal, the two cities’ criminal groups do not necessarily meet or collaborate in criminal activities. This is because of the key differences at the higher levels of the Italian mafia-type groups and OMGs. Italian organised crime groups in Toronto are predominantly of Calabrian extraction rather than Sicilian, as in Montreal. Ethnicity is not necessarily as important as in the past – these groups co-operate with non-Calabrians and non-Italians. Nevertheless, there are key differences in hierarchy and career management, with Toronto being historically important for the development of some of the clans of the ‘Ndrangheta.
Through close family ties, arranged marriages, and links with their homeland, Calabrian crime families in Toronto have maintained strong links to the ‘Siderno Group of Crime’. Founded in the 1950s by Calabrian Cosa Nostra members from New York City, this alliance of families is connected to some of the main ‘ndrine (family clans) in Siderno, Calabria, according to Italian anti-mafia authorities.
These ‘ndrine in Calabria are well-integrated into the wider operational structure of the ‘Ndrangheta. Accordingly, the power of the Italian clans in Toronto rests on the reputation derived from surnames and family alliances, with indications of co-ordination across different Calabrian families in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the rest of Ontario. Curtailing the activities of the ‘Ndrangheta has been a priority for Canadian law enforcement – Project Ophoenix, launched in 2013, focused on the main branches of Calabrian organised crime families, even beyond those linked to the Siderno Group.
Although drug importation provides much of these crime families’ revenue, their activities are diversified locally and internationally, including extortion, money laundering, and reinvestments in the legal economy. Unlike street gangs, which are linked to certain neighbourhoods, Italian groups are not bound to specific territories and instead operate at a much-broader level in the GTA.
OMGs control drug importation and distribution in Toronto. As with Italian groups, they appear to operate independently from their counterparts in Montreal, despite some connections with similar groups in Quebec. In March 2017, Project Silkstone charged 18 individuals as part of a cross-border investigation – including Quebec, Ontario, and the United States – into the trafficking of illegal guns and drugs, including fentanyl (a synthetic opiod), cocaine, and ecstasy.
Predominant among Toronto’s biker gangs is the Hells Angels, organised into 14 chapters across Ontario, compared with four in Quebec, according to the RCMP. The group’s links with Latin American drug producers and smugglers were revealed by the RCMP-led Project Shirlea in 2000-01, which led to 409 criminal charges and proved the extent of the production of marijuana and methamphetamines in Canada. The Hells Angels has successfully attempted to co-ordinate its operations with the other OMGs in Toronto since around 2002.
The Outlaws OMG is also present in Toronto. In 2014-15, the group merged three chapters in the city into one, according to the RCMP. Arrests have also included members of the Vagabonds’ Ontario chapter involved in cocaine and cannabis distribution and of the Bandidos – aligned with the Rock Machine’s Ontario chapter – involved in cocaine trafficking. Gang-fuelled violence continues to challenge law enforcement in the city and more widely in Ontario. The interdependent relationship between OMGs and street gangs and the availability of firearms on the streets are particularly problematic.
According to the RCMP, Toronto’s OMGs use street gangs “to keep a low profile from law enforcement” by assigning various street-level criminal activities to them, particularly drug dealing and distribution. However, some street gangs at times achieve a level of sophistication and a reach in criminal markets that challenges the OMGs’ operations and increases street violence. Besides distributing drugs for the OMGs, street gangs are also used by Calabrian clans.
There are numerous street gangs in Toronto and the GTA distributed across the territory and involved in a variety of criminal activities within particular ethnic communities, particularly relating to drugs and extortion. These groups include Iranian and Afghan gangs, such as Afghan For Life (AFL or A4L) and Afghan Fighting Generation (AFG). These gangs often engage in violence and use firearms.
More than 150 different street gangs of various ethnic and non-ethnic composition have been recorded since the late 1990s on the streets of Toronto, according to the RCMP. Other ethnic-based gangs include Jamaican posses and the Shower Posse, which are loose networks of gangs involved in drugs and arms trafficking linked to groups in Kingston, Jamaica, and in New York. Non-ethnic-based groups with interests in weapons and drugs include the Dixon City Bloods, which has affiliates in other parts of Canada such as Edmonton.
Montreal and Toronto have highly complex organised crime dynamics. Several short-term scenarios could shift the power structures of the cities’ organised crime groups and, as a consequence, affect the way illicit markets – particularly in drugs – operate.
The first would be migration of Calabrian clans from Toronto to Montreal, a possibility raised by the Canadian media and, to a certain extent, by Italian prosecutors. In 2015 – as arrests were being made under Project Ophoenix in Toronto and Project Clemenza in Montreal – Italian anti-mafia authorities conducted Operation Acero (Maple) Connection. This confirmed the power and wealth of ‘Ndrangheta clans in Toronto and their connections to Calabrian clans in Italy and the Netherlands, as well as to drug brokers in Latin America, particularly Brazil.
Nevertheless, there is some animosity between the Calabrian clans from Siderno in Toronto, which could lead to a change in leadership or a displacement of individuals. Meanwhile, a lack of clear leadership in the Italian criminal community in Montreal could open the door for the establishment of the ‘Ndrangheta in the city.
This scenario is supported by the travel of key figures from one city to the other and investments in Montreal linked to organised crime figures in Toronto. However, RCMP sources downplayed this eventuality. In Montreal, the sources suggested, power takes precedence over money, meaning that the Toronto groups would have to be invited to establish a foothold in the city. Additionally, the RCMP argued that the supremacy of the Hells Angels in the drug trade and the growing segregation of other gangs in Montreal would leave little room for the ‘Ndrangheta to operate.
Nonetheless, investigations of the Hells Angels and ongoing law enforcement attention in both cities to OMGs have severely affected the groups’ ability to conduct their criminal enterprises. The Hells Angels has attempted to mitigate this focus by increasingly investing in legitimate businesses to disguise and launder its proceeds from crime and has also delegated its street activities to other criminal groups to disguise its presence.
Despite these strategies, arrests and the monitoring of the Hells Angels hierarchy create the scope for other criminal groups to increase their power in illicit markets and expand their presence in both cities. In Montreal, this is likely to happen in the next three to seven years. In Toronto, this could lead to a strengthening of the Calabrian mafia, alongside the most notorious Iranian and Jamaican street gangs.
The legalisation of cannabis – a profitable market commodity – is bound to affect these scenarios, particularly in Ontario. It has the potential to lead to the diversification of drug supply, an increase in the local production of chemical precursors, and potentially the creation of cartels for a cannabis black market.