Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2006 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Betsy Powell, John Duncanson, Staff Reporters MOB PROBE BEGAN IN GTA Toronto Car Dealer Went to York Police After Repaying $500,000 Loan To a Lawyer With Links to a Montreal Crime Family It was an unpaid $500,000 debt that a Toronto car dealer owed to a dealer in Montreal that eventually led to one of the biggest investigations into the Mob in Canada, various sources say. Over the years, there had been numerous police efforts to shut down the Rizzuto clan. But it was a squabble that started in Toronto in 2001 that gave the police a starting point that five years later would lead to the arrests of alleged Mafia kingpin Nicolo Rizzuto, 82, and dozens of others suspected of being connected to the vast Montreal-based criminal organization. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are being tight-lipped about their investigation, including the genesis of the probe. But several sources indicated that it was a failed attempt by the Rizzutos to collect the debt on behalf of a Montreal luxury car dealer named Frank Martorana that got the ball rolling. The scenario was outlined in The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto. The book says Martorana was owed $500,000 by an unnamed Toronto car dealer. He needed the money to pay off another debt and approached the Rizzutos to collect - -- "certainly a more alarming debt to be holding," the book says. There is no suggestion that Martorana did anything wrong. A lawyer "with links" to Vito Rizzuto, who is the son of Nicolo, accepted the money -- a transaction that disgusted the Toronto car dealer, who made a "flippant remark" about contacting the Quebec bar association. "The money was returned. Rather than face possible exposure, the Montreal men immediately stepped away from the deal. This was not the way it was supposed to happen; rarely did things turn so sour in Montreal," authors Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphreys wrote in their recently published book. The Toronto car dealer reported the incident to York Region police, who passed on the information to RCMP investigators in Montreal. That eventually led to Project Colisee and culminated in Wednesday's arrests, most of which took place in Quebec. Two of the accused live in the GTA. Reports show Martorana was abducted last year from a barber shop in Montreal. He was pistol-whipped, forced into a sport utility vehicle and driven away. When he resurfaced six days later, he called police and told them he was home but wasn't interested in pressing charges. This week's arrests mark a period of uncertainty in the changing landscape of the underworld. Earlier this year, Vito Rizzuto, who took over from his father, was extradited to the United States on racketeering charges. It's alleged he was involved in the gangland slayings of three Bonanno crime family members in 1981 in New York. There are competing theories on the impact of a weaker Montreal Mob. Some believe it will give more power to Mafia figures based in Greater Toronto. But Mob expert Antonio Nicaso says the GTA-area Mafia are not organized enough to be like their counterparts in Montreal. "I don't think they have the people to deal with a complex reality like Montreal," he said yesterday. "Toronto Mafia are local people with not a lot of credentials -- not a lot of profile to take over the Montreal market." The head of Montreal's multi-agency organized-crime unit said more charges will almost surely follow as investigators sift through evidence obtained in a series of raids at the homes and businesses of suspects -- including four grocery stores and a technology firm. "We've been able to establish that through intimidation and corruption, this organization infiltrated legitimate businesses," said RCMP Insp. Michel Aubin. Police also revealed more details about how the organization, with the help of at least two employees of the Canada Border Services Agency, was able to ensure safe passage into Canada for a truck containing cocaine smuggled into North America from Venezuela through the port of Newark, N.J. More drugs were brought into the country through the Montreal airport with the help of baggage handlers who knew how to identify the bags containing contraband, police allege. Food-services workers also hid bundles of cocaine in airline commissary carts, and a border agency employee provided customs documents that meant that bags carried by drug mules were never searched. An official maintained the border agency is ensuring strict security controls in the country's airports, even as he acknowledged employee-screening procedures will be reviewed in the wake of the arrest warrants against the two workers. The investigators also talked about the global scope of the organization, which one characterized as one of the largest cocaine importers in eastern Canada, with links to distribution networks in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. It's also estimated the organization made $25 million from an illegal online sports-betting operation whose servers were based in the Caribbean and on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve, south of Montreal. Police said 17 of the 90 people identified as suspects in the probe remain at large. With files from Sean Gordon in Montreal - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine