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A lack
of laws to combat the Mafia and money
laundering has
made Canada a ``free market'' for organized
crime groups from around
the world, experts told a symposium
yesterday. At least 10 different Mafia
organizations with roots from Russia to
Colombia have branches in Canada, helping
forge unprecedented
international ties between gangsters,
Italian author Antonio Nicaso
said. ``Canada, in short, is a free
market for the criminal underworld,''
said Nicaso, who has written several
books on the Mafia and now lives in Toronto.
``For criminals, Canada is a fool's paradise
and we are the
fools.''
Nicaso said the
mob likes Canada because the country lacks
laws
that force banks to report suspicious money
transactions and has no
anti-Mafia legislation, unlike the U.S.,
Italy, Hong Kong and other countries.
Federal regulations require financial
institutions and brokerage firms to keep
records of cash deposits of $10,000 or more,
but don't require the recording of large
cheques, money orders or money wired to
accounts. Canadian banks have voluntarily
agreed to track large wire
transfers and cheques. As well, Canada's
relatively liberal immigration rules allow
for the ``free flow'' of criminals across
its borders, added Nicaso. The
symposium on international organized crime
follows the arrest in Toronto this week of
Italian immigrant Salvatore Ferraro, who the
RCMP say is one of the six most powerful
Mafia leaders in the world. Italian police
have a 300-page indictment against Ferraro,
who allegedly ran a Sicilian mob family from
his suburban home. He was
ordered deported earlier this week.
``There's no accident he chose Canada to
live in,'' said Nicaso.
``It took them (police) three years to find
him here.'' Canada is home to branches
of two of the five biggest Italian Mafia
groups, two of the five Colombian drug
cartels, Oriental gangs like the Triad,
Russian Mafia, Jamaican drug ``posses'' and
assorted
biker gangs, Nicaso said. Links
partly cemented in Canada led to summit
meetings in recent years between Italian,
Russian, Chinese and Colombian mobsters, he
said. The Russian mob is expanding rapidly
here, engaging in activities like arms and
alcohol smuggling from the United States,
said Rod Stamler, a former assistant
commissioner of the RCMP. Mario
Possamai, a forensic accounting investigator
and author of a book on money laundering,
said there are signs that Canada has become
a ``clearing house'' for organized crime
profits. Ottawa needs legislation
requiring banks to report large
transactions, he said. Other speakers also
urged that Canada pass conspiracy-type laws
that would essentially make it a crime to
take part in criminal groups like the Mafia.
``Organized crime presents a fundamental
threat to freedom and democracy,'' said
Italian anti-Mafia judge Nicola Gratteri.
``The greater the financial power of
organized crime, the greater will be its
influence in the worlds of business and
politics.'' |
