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TORONTO
(CP) - 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 Tuesday. 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 United
States, 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.'' |
