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HAMILTON
-- The bloody murder of an underworld
lieutenant
allied with a recently slain mob boss severs
the control of powerful
U.S. crime families over the Canadian Mafia,
says an expert on
organized crime.
A violent war of independence links
Wednesday's slaying of Carmen
Barillaro in Niagara Falls, Ont., to the
shooting death of Johnny
(Pops) Papalia in Hamilton two months ago.
``Barillaro's murder is proof the murder of
Papalia was part of a
bigger plan which is changing the face of
the mob in Ontario,'' says
Antonio Nicaso, author of nine books
on the Mafia and an internationally known
expert on organized crime.
At stake is control of Ontario's lucrative
drug trade and profits from illegal and
legitimate businesses run by crime groups.
Barillaro, top mob boss in Niagara Falls and
a convicted drug
trafficker, was gunned down while alone at
his home Wednesday night,
said police. He would have turned 53 on
Thursday.
Barillaro was one of a dozen Ontario
underbosses who answered to
Papalia -- the top mob man in the province
until he was gunned down
outside his Hamilton vending machine
business May 31. ``People from Montreal and
Ontario want to take away the power La Cosa
Nostra [U.S. Mafia] has in southern Ontario.
That power came
through John Papalia and Carmen Barillaro,''
said Nicaso. ``The last
man alive with links to the U.S. was Carmen
Barillaro.'' The bid for independence
started in Montreal in 1978 when Papalia's
old associate Paolo Violi -- a former
Hamilton resident -- was
murdered, severing the Montreal group's ties
with New York's Bonanno
family. But Ontario -- under Papalia's firm
grip -- stayed in the American
fold, answering to the Magaddino family in
Buffalo. Barillaro's last known trip to
Hamilton was for Papalia's funeral,
a likely signal of his continued allegiance
to the Buffalo organization. Mob experts
will now be watching who shows up at
Barillaro's funeral, expected next week.
An entourage from Buffalo could signal the
Americans are not
prepared to yield their Canadian turf.
But the power of the Buffalo mobsters has
been waning in recent
years, said Nicaso. ``They're not
scared of them any more,''Nicaso
said. ``There are many sources and many
rumors telling me the mob from Montreal and
the mob from Toronto is getting together to
take over power in southern Ontario and to
be independent.''
In fact, representatives from mob groups in
both provinces had a meeting shortly before
Papalia's murder.
``It is my hypothesis they decided there and
then on the murder of
Papalia and Barillaro,'' Nicaso said.
But that's not the only hypothesis being
floated around. A police source said one of
the first names bandied about among
investigators on the day of the Papalia
shooting was that of a Niagara Falls
criminal who served as ``a muscle'' for
Barillaro. Apparently he also fit the
description of the Papalia suspect.
That leads some to suspect the Barillaro
killing was payback by Papalia's people for
a possible role in the Papalia hit. They
speculate that Barillaro could have been
making a move for his boss' turf.
Hamilton-Wentworth police Inspector Dave
Bowen said it is reasonable to think the
deaths may be linked. ``We are actively
talking to Niagara police to try to look for
any connections.'' |
