The
victim of a brazen shooting in the parking lot of a Woodbridge, Ont. café was
wanted in Italy for his links to the Mafia.
Carmine
Verduci, 56, was a well-known player in organized crime groups in the Toronto
area, multiple sources have told CTV Toronto.
Officers
who were called to the scene on Regina Road found the body of the male victim at
approximately 2 p.m. on Thursday.
York
Regional Police said it was unclear whether the man was at the café or leaving
the business at the time of the shooting.
Police
are looking for two male suspects seen fleeing the scene of the shooting in a
grey compact car that may have been a Honda Civic. One of the men is white,
short and slim, and was wearing a black or grey hoodie and dark coloured baggy
pants at the time of the shooting. Police have only said that the other suspect
is a white male.
Authorities
said there were several witnesses in the area at the time of the shooting, and
asked anyone with information to contact the homicide unit at 1-866-876-5423,
ext. 7865, or email homicide@yrp.ca. Witnesses can call Crime Stoppers
anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS, leave an anonymous tip online, or text YORK and
a tip to 274637 (CRIMES).
Mafia
ties in Ontario
The
victim's identity was confirmed by a police statement, but they have not
mentioned his alleged Mafia ties.
However,
Verduci was one of eight Canadians named on a warrant from the Italian
authorities charging him with Mafia links in March. The men were named as part
of Operazione Il Crimine, or Operation Crimini.
Italian
police alleged that Verduci is associated with the Calabrian mob called
'ndrangheta. The warrant said that he was heard speaking with the gang leader
Giuseppe Commisso during a wiretap in 2009.
The
organization is based in Siderno, in the Calabria region of Italy, and is
accused of drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering.
The
warrant also named seven men living in Thunder Bay, Ont.: 65-year-old Giuseppe
Bruzzese, 54-year-old Cosimo Cirillo, 74-year-old Cosimo Etreni, 65-year-old
Rocco Etreni, 70-year-old Antonio Minnella, 59-year-old Rocco Minnella and
61-year-old Vito Minnella.
Legally,
the men cannot be extradited or deported for charges that are not offences
under Canadian law.
Canadian
law does not make membership to criminal organizations a crime, so prosecutors
must prove a member's actions helped the organization commit an indictable
offence.
Organized
crime expert James Dubro says Verduci’s murder is likely tied to the sudden
passing of mob kingpin Vito Rizzuto, who died in December of natural causes.
Rizzuto’s
death, Dubro said, left a power vacuum, which has in turn caused a deadly turf
war in Montreal’s criminal underworld.
“There’s
a lot up for grabs in the old Mafia world here in Canada, which has been around
for a hundred years,” Dubro told CTV News. “But we don’t really have strong
leadership right now