Gagliano denies aiding wife of alleged Mafia hit man

Anne Marie Owens and Andrew McIntosh / National Post

A suspected Mafia hit man arrested in Montreal this week came to Canada after his wife allegedly gained access through a federal immigrant entrepreneur program and enlisted the help of a federal Cabinet minister's riding office.

Gaetano Amodeo, who is on Interpol's list of the 500 most dangerous fugitives and who allegedly fled Italy after he was linked to a police officer's murder, is in custody while an immigration hearing determines whether he will be deported.

His wife, Maria Sicurella di Amodeo, obtained permanent resident status in Canada with their two children last summer after saying she had separated from her husband, only to reconcile with him a few months later and sponsor him as a visitor to Canada.

Mr. Amodeo, who is reportedly "a man of honour" in the Cattolica Eraclea clan of the Agrigento region of Sicily, has been in and out of Canada several times since 1996. Some of the world's most powerful drug lords have come from the small agricultural village of about 6,000 people.

The controversy around the case erupted in the House of Commons yesterday, with opposition MPs demanding to know how the alleged mobster gained entry to Canada and questioning the involvement of Alfonso Gagliano, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, whose riding office wrote a letter to Citizenship and Immigration Canada seeking information about Ms. Sicurella di Amodeo's file.

Mr. Gagliano has denied any wrongdoing and says the letter, which he did not sign, was simply a normal administrative follow-up to a constituent's request.

Réal Ménard, a Bloc Québécois MP, suggested the Minister should step down until an independent inquiry investigates the matter. He said in the House of Commons that the Minister should "not only be above all suspicion, but that he undertake to have no relationship of any kind with mobsters."

Diane Ablonczy, a Canadian Alliance MP, said Mr. Gagliano should have known he was indirectly aiding a fugitive and said the Amodeo family's case raises questions about the Liberal government's commitment to protecting public safety: "Why on Earth would the government give a safe haven in Canada to someone who is known and wanted as a criminal?"

Mr. Amodeo had been living in a modest duplex in a neighbourhood in Montreal's east end with his wife and two sons, aged seven and 12.

His wife, who is believed to have come to Canada in 1998, is the administrator of a jewellery shop, Il Barone Dell'Oro, and Mr. Amodeo is referred to as a "gold merchant" in documents filed at his immigration hearing this week.

The jewellery shop came to the attention of authorities two years ago when a business card for the store was found on the body of Gerlando Sciascia, a 65-year-old mobster considered to be a liaison between crime families in Montreal and New York, when he was murdered in the Bronx.

According to immigration records, Mr. Amodeo first came to Canada in August, 1996, but went to the United States after a few weeks. In November, 1997, he returned again, this time leaving the country to take up residence on the resort island of St. Martin. He entered the country again in May, 1998.

His wife obtained permanent resident status in July, 2000, under the federal government's immigrant entrepreneur program, which aids in the immigration process for anyone who commits to starting a small business.

She excluded her husband from the application, saying the couple were legally separated, and so Mr. Amodeo did not come under any scrutiny, said Robert Gervais, an Immigration Canada spokesman.

By September, Ms. Sicurella di Amodeo indicated to authorities that she had reconciled with her husband and wanted to sponsor him, Mr. Gervais said.

He said authorities are challenging Mr. Amodeo's status in Canada, saying that because of the information now known about him, "we believe he will be declared inadmissible to Canada."

The immigration hearing is scheduled to resume next week.

An Italian warrant for his arrest was issued in January, 1999, during a preliminary hearing in Palermo into the 1992 murder of a prominent investigator with the Carabinieri police in Agrigento, Sicily.

Giuliano Guazzelli, who was shot in the face and the back after his car was ambushed, was "a walking database on all the activity of the Mafia in Agrigento," said Antonio Nicaso, a Canadian author and expert on the Italian underworld.

He said Mr. Amodeo is alleged to have played a minor role in the Guazzelli murder, hiding the murder weapons, but figured prominently in the reports of two underworld figures who came forward early in 1999 to inform authorities about the activities of the Cosa Nostra.

Mr. Amodeo is also sought in the 1991 murder of Francesco Triassi and the attempted murder of Salvatore Catania, in Siculiana, a small village in Agrigento, in what was believed to be a clash of rival underworld clans, Mr. Nicaso said.

German authorities also issued a warrant for Mr. Amodeo's arrest last November for his alleged involvement in the 1981 murder of a German underworld figure.

The Cattolica Eraclea clan is reported to be a branch of the much larger Cuntrera-Caruana crime family, once dubbed The Rothschilds of the Mafia, which has deep ties in Canada.

February 24, 2001