Organized crime turns the page;
John Pops wouldn’t recognize the new mob order

By Pauk Legall

The Spectator, Oct. 31, 2005

 
The late Hamilton Mafia godfather Johnny (Pops) Papalia would feel like a stranger in a strange land if he were alive today.

He was the last of a dying breed of old-style mob bosses and would appear almost cartoonish today with his pin-striped suit and swaggering style. He presided over his criminal turf like a feudal lord and worked only with a small coterie of Mafia associates.

The criminal landscape in Canada has changed dramatically since the 73-year-old Mafia chief was gunned down in front of his business office on Railway Street eight years ago.

"He would be very confused with the situation today," said organized crime expert and author Antonio Nicaso. "There never will be another person like Pops again ... with his potential, influence and charisma."

Papalia's death and the recent jailing of a Montreal mob boss has left a big vacuum in the traditional Canadian Mafia. But the next person to step into the vacuum will probably have little in common with Papalia and his ilk.

The traditional Italian Mafia is still a major player among an array of ethnically based criminal organizations, which includes Chinese triads, Colombian drug cartels and the Russian Mafia.

But unlike in Papalia's day, when it had a rigid power structure, the modern mob operates more like a horizontally structured company with a wide range of business interests. Instead of engaging in turf wars, the new Mafia works with other criminal organizations and is no longer obsessed with its ethnic roots.

If a new leader emerges to fill the vacuum, he'll have to be more open-minded and flexible. He might even have a business degree.

"Co-operation is the order of the day. Now, the trend is towards partnerships and criminal joint ventures across the country and southern Ontario," said Nicaso, who will be in town today to promote his new book about organized crime that he co-wrote with Lee Lamothe.

It's called Angels, Mobsters & Narco-Terrorists: The Rising Menace of the Global Criminal Empires.

"Instead of ethnic background, the co-operation is based on know- how, knowledge and expertise. I can be an asset to an organization, for example, if I'm an expert in computers, regardless of whether I'm Iranian, Italian or Russian."

Using classified documents and first-hand research, the authors show how traditional organized crime has morphed into a global monster.

In the new spirit of co-operation, outlaw motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels now do joint ventures in Quebec with the Italian Mafia, the Irish mob known as the West End gang and the Colombian cartels. Nicaso said the groups have formed a consortium and meet regularly to discuss issues such as the availability and price of cocaine.

"The Hells Angels are now part of the elite, especially in Quebec. That will be the trend for the future," Nicaso said.

In Ontario, he added, the Hells Angels have already formed what he described as "strategic alliances" with the Mafia and other groups. They often work together on major international enterprises, such as large shipments of cocaine from Colombia.

This marriage of convenience would have been taboo under Papalia's watch as he despised outlaw bikers.

Nicaso believes his murder in 1997 helped "open the door" for the establishment of the first Hells Angels chapters in Ontario three years later. The gang now has more than 200 members and 16 chapters in this province, including a new chapter in Hamilton this year.

He may have been confused with the new organized crime map. But Nicaso believes Papalia would have been happy too. Canada is still considered a great place for gangsters to do business. Organized crime has almost fallen off the police radar.

"He would have been happy," Nicaso said about the late Hamilton godfather. "Our judicial system is still a joke. We've become a country of crime. But we're still not a country of punishment."