RCMP busts Italian mafia rings that shipped drugs from Guyana
Canada – A “significant dent” has been made in the ‘Ndrangheta crime cells operating in the GTA, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Wednesday, the day after pre-dawn raids that resulted in 19 men arrested.
Keith Finn, superintendent of RCMP, speaking on Wednesday at a press conference. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun)
The arrests were part of a two-year investigation that targeted the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organization, a confederation of Mafia families that originated in Italy but has since spread to different countries including Canada.
There were 24 search warrants executed by the 260 officers in Toronto, York Region, Hamilton, Bradford, Peel and Durham regions comprising the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU).
Investigators seized three firearms, $15,000 cash, eight and a half kilograms of cocaine, and seven kilograms of marijuana as well as computer equipment.
“There are two key cells of all the ‘Ndrangheta, I would say they are significantly dented,” said RCMP Supt. Keith Finn, the officer in charge of the CFSEU, at York Regional Police headquarters in Aurora.
“Today, they are no longer effective. Does that mean that the enterprise itself — are there still elements out there? Absolutely. Our work is not done.”
However, Finn emphasized the investigation was able to establish “the hierarchy, the relationships and the criminal subculture that exists in their world, as to how to behave and conduct business.”
They were able to identify Giuseppe Ursino, 62, of Bradford as one of the Mob bosses as well as Carmine Verduci, 56, who was gunned down in April 2014 outside a Woodbridge cafe in broad daylight.
Police sources told the Toronto Sun at the time that the assassination was considered part of the vendetta war involving Montreal’s Rizzuto crime family.
Diego Serrano, 66, of Vaughan, was identified as a “significant facilitator” of these organizations, Finn said.
Investigators allege drugs were being smuggled to Toronto using planes from Costa Rica and Jamaica, and ships from Guyana and the Dominican Republic to Halifax. There were also shipments by truck from Halifax to Toronto.
“The ‘Ndrangheta group has a way of conducting business that makes it hard to infiltrate their crimes,” Finn said.
“How bad are these guys? In one case, there was specific direction provided about how to extort money from a victim. And that included don’t exclude going to the victim’s family and using them and, if need be, you put a gun in somebody’s face.”
The ages of those charged span from 26 to 66. Bail hearings for the accused began Tuesday at Old City Hall and the next scheduled date is June 30. (www.saultstar.com)