Sep 19 2008
The ‘Old Man’ of Canadian Mafia hangs up fedora, socks of cash
Nicolo Rizzuto once enjoyed quasi-feudal loyalty from underlings
MONTREAL — Flanked by his most trusted associates, Nicolo Rizzuto shuffled into court wearing an elderly man’s grey cardigan instead of his trademark fedora and overcoat.
The 84-year-old great-grandfather, who started a sophisticated family empire with international reach that has brought in tens of millions of dollars, nodded from behind security glass as his lawyer registered a guilty plea on his behalf.
Before landing in jail, where his dark brown hair has faded to grey, Mr. Rizzuto kept busy with daily meetings with his subordinates, listening, counselling, giving orders and settling disputes.
Then he would accept offers of thick wads of cash that he would hide in his socks.
Mr. Rizzuto and five others who pleaded guilty yesterday are described in court documents as the top leaders of the dominant Mafia family in Eastern Canada.
The gang’s headquarters was the Consenza Social Club, a north-end Montreal café where Mr. Rizzuto and his captains held court.
They didn’t know that for four years, the RCMP had hidden cameras and microphones inside the café, recording Mr. Rizzuto’s pivotal behind-the-scenes presence.
Mr. Rizzuto and his captains enjoyed a quasi-feudal loyalty from their underlings.
Lorenzo Giordano, 45, once hit another car with his new Ferrari Maranello and fled the scene. An underling, Mike Lapolla, went to police and took the blame for the hit-and-run.
Traffickers working for the syndicate had to pay “taxes” – kickbacks – to the Rizzuto organization. One drug smuggler was heard on a wiretap saying he paid $3-million in kickbacks for his importations.
On one occasion, law-enforcement officials seized 218 kilograms of cocaine hidden in false compartments in two aircraft luggage containers. The news created a storm within the organization because it was nearly 100 kilograms more than the bosses were expecting.
After what the RCMP affidavits call “an internal investigation,” the gang allowed one culprit to keep working, but he was stripped of his earnings on the next deal.
During the investigation, RCMP officers broke into the vacated home of the parents of one drug trafficker and found $2.9-million in cash. The police seized the money and made it look like it was stolen.
According to RCMP wiretaps, the enraged trafficker thought his brother-in-law had stolen the money and went looking for him. Montreal police stopped his car and seized a handgun.
In wiretaps, other mobsters call Mr. Rizzuto “the Old Man” or “Zio Cola.” (Zio is Italian for uncle).
Mr. Rizzuto’s son, Vito, has been described in court documents as the top Mafia leader in Canada and is serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for racketeering.
The elder Mr. Rizzuto came to Canada in 1954 from the Sicilian town of Cattolica Eraclea. By 1975, he was identified in a public inquiry as a lieutenant of the Cotronis, the family of Calabrian origin that controlled Montreal’s Mafia.
During a power struggle in the late 1970s, Mr. Rizzuto was forced into exile in Venezuela until mobsters of Sicilian origin affiliated with the Rizzutos began to hold sway over their Calabrian rivals.
While in Venezuela, Mr. Rizzuto was jailed for cocaine possession. He returned to Canada in 1993.
The ‘Old Man’ of Canadian Mafia hangs up fedora, socks of cash – TU THANH HA AND LES PERREAUX – September 19, 2008 – This story was found at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080919.MAFIANICKRIZZUTO19/TPStory/National
