Author: Mafia entrenched in Canada

[The Streets Don't Love You Back]

Author: Mafia entrenched in Canada

By ROB LAMBERTI, QMI Agency

Last Updated: October 9, 2010 3:42pm

Italian Judge Nicola Gratteri (left) and co-author Antonio Nicaso. (Ernest Doroszuk, QMI Agency)

TORONTO – The 'Ndrangheta in Canada is insulated by our ignorance and indifference.

Italian prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who's jailed thousands of members of the most powerful Italian criminal organizations based in Calabria, the southern-most region of the boot, believes Canadian law enforcement officials aren't assisting as much as they could.

Gratteri, 52, toured Canada to promote the publication of a best-selling Italian language book he co-authored with mob expert Antonio Nicaso, about life as an anti-organized crime crusader.

But not only does the 'Ndrangheta flex its muscles in the underworld around the world — it's Europe's prime cocaine mover — it is also a power in the "overworld," within legitimate circles where deals are made in full public view and where dirty money is laundered.

The Bad Seed

The book La Malapianta (The Bad Seed) is the fourth collaboration between the two men who spoke at the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto.

Gratteri, a magistrate since 1986 and with Italy's Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia, finds himself entrenched in the front lines in the fight against the 'Ndrangheta and has been living with a constant security presence since 1989.

He talks about the known attempts and conspiracies on his life by organized crime with ease. It's part of the price of making the life-long commitment to challenge a criminal organization entrenched in the region's culture.

"Already in 1989, my fiancee received a telephone call telling her not to marry me because she would marry a dead man," Gratteri says through interpreter Martin Stiglio. "Two times in particular, we discovered through wiretaps in prisons many prisoners were recorded discussing, suggesting ways on how to proceed to physical elimination with explosives."

He says others who turned led police to caches of weapons and explosives that were intended to be used to assassinate him.

"These books created a nervousness among the Mafia," Gratteri says. "Incredibly enough, they find these books in the hiding places of criminals when they are captured," he says.

La Malapianta is a best seller in Italy, moving about 150,000 copies so far since release earlier this year. Some of those buyers, Gratteri is sure, were 'Ndrangheta members.

Gratteri says the book has a chapter dedicated to the international reach of the 'Ndrangheta and Canada plays a central role in it's operations.

"Toronto has hundreds of members of the 'Ndrangheta," he says.

The criminal organization was relatively unknown in Canada until police raided a Toronto home in 1971, netting a loaded .25-calibre handgun and six counterfeit $10 bills.

But it was what was found in the kitchen cabinet that would rock the country: A 27-page document written in archaic Italian entitled "Come formare una societa," which outlined the rules, ceremonies and how to form a 'Ndrangheta cell.

Francesco Caccamo and his wife, Rosa, were arrested and court ruled the documents, which would become known as the Caccamo Papers, were genuine, similar to only three others ever found throughout the world.

Caccamo was a member of a clan which was part of the Siderno Group, an umbrella group of 'Ndrangheta families originating from Siderno, Calabria. A number of them are still active, but other clans from other Calabrian towns and provinces have since moved into the GTA.

As a whole, Gratteri says Canada's legal and law-enforcement officials don't understand the gravity of the problem.

"No. In fact, there are a series of misunderstandings," he says. In Canada, it's not illegal to belong to a criminal organization, whereas in Italy, Mafia affiliation is a crime.

"Second, the police and the legal system are aware of criminal behaviour only when it leaves a trace of blood on the street," butorganized crime here tries to stay below the radar.

Gratteri says there's "a huge possibility" to invest, or launder, their illicit money in Canada without questions asked.

Gang shootings

This is not a problem limited to Canada, he says, but in many first-world nations.

“The real problem is not represented by the people in the streets, by gang shootings or by general acts of violence. That the fact they are not happening is the proof that the country is possibly the best for the 'Ndrangheta as an investing place, where the return is actually guaranteed."

Gratteri says there's been an easing of co-operation with Canadian authorities in recent years and has no explanation for it. He wonders if organized crime is a priority here.

"In places like Canada, they stay in the shadows," Nicaso says. "Canada is a rich country and gives it an opportunity to invest the money, launder the money and that's what they're looking for. They're not looking for a place where they compete, or fight or become violent."

Canada has strategic importance for the 'Ndrangheta, where it invests.

Nicaso said Gratteri spearheaded a recent project that nabbed 350 people, and wiretaps had repeatedly picked up references to Canada.

Gratteri said writing his book was essential because the 'Ndrangheta can't only be fought in court, but writing about it exposes it, and could force the cultural change needed to weed out the criminal organization.the streets dont love you back