uncharted.ca

Still, he is careful. The ’Ndrangheta, he said, finds Canada the “perfect place.”

“Canada plays an extremely important role in the ’Ndrangheta, and in general, in Mafia activities and actually can be considered a very strategic country.

“Canada is important because it is a very rich country but also because Canada lacks legislation that can fight the ’Ndrangheta and gang crime in an effective way, since there is no criminalization of membership. Besides that, Canada is also a nation that is very protective of the rights of the person who is prosecuted, which makes it a perfect place for any Mafia gang to come and use the Canadian economy.”

Members of the ’Ndrangheta feel comfortable here, Mr. Gratteri said.

“They would never go to a place where they find themselves surrounded by hostility.”

Canada is not working hard to change that, he said.

“I am under the impression that the police doesn’t do enough,” he said. “They are doing less than they used to do in the past. They seem to be less motivated to actually take up action.”

Why?

“I think that it is a matter of undervaluing the risk and the danger of the ’Ndrangheta and Mafia. I have the same impression of many other police forces from all over the world and very often the reason not to intervene is given by the [lack of the] actual presence of killed people in the street.

“Since here it is difficult to find a true victim dying or being killed in the street the actual danger of the ’Ndrangheta is much undervalued,” he said.


Read more: Mafia prosecutor on book tour describes a home life of death threats and 24-hour watch

This has been the year of white-collar scandals and schemes in Canada, ranging from disgraced Montreal financial advisor Earl Jones, charged with having spent at least $12-million of his clients’ money, to Ponzi schemes run by Toronto fund manager Weizhen Tang, who allegedly ran a $60-million fraud, and the duo from Alberta -- Milowe Allen Brost and accomplice Gary Allen Sorenson -- who have been charged with embezelling roughly $100-million from unwitting investors.

The name of the game is to make money...nothing else matters.
Chuck Carlo

Author: Mafia entrenched in Canada By ROB LAMBERTI, QMI AGENCY
Last Updated: October 9, 2010 3:42pm

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 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.

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

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.