Italian authorities are warning Canada of a possible mafia war in the streets of Toronto between some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful gangster clans based on a secret wiretap recording during an anti-mob operation in Italy.
Vincenzo Crupi recently returned to Italy from Canada, reporting to his brother-in-law concerning news from the mafia elites here in Canada. Tensions between the Coluccio and the Figliomenti clans are apparently very high following the murder of an important Toronto area mobster, Carmine Verduci, in 2014. Verduci supposedly communicated information between Canada and Italy for the Calabrian Mafia clans.
If a mob war between clans of the Calabrian mafia is to take place in Toronto, we have every reason to be worried. An estimate showed that the clans made more than McDonald’s and Deutsche bank combined in 2013. Yet, there are a few problems with this information.
It must have been immensely convenient for the Italian authorities to find a reason to arrest the two mob brothers, especially based on the methods used to gather evidence of their involvement with the mafia. In Canada, hidden microphone recordings are practically impossible to use as sufficient evidence for arrest because of the lack of identity verification. In fact, the transcript of the alleged conversation was not released to the public and the physical evidence has not yet been approved in court. There is no guarantee that any mob wars will be taking place in Toronto. We are hanging ourselves off of the supposed words of a gang member in Italy without any knowledge as to whether or not it was him who truly said it. We don’t know the quality of the recording, if it was a constructed story, or if a few crucial elements could have been lost in translation. We could be running on a rumor that only worries our authorities to the extent that it does because of the dangerous characters it involves.
Many people are reading far too deep between the lines where there could likely be a connection, but where there could also very likely be none. The anti-mob operation titled Acero-Krupy, which one journalist points out that “acero” translates to “maple,” and believes that it implies that the title of the operation itself indicates the likelihood of a mob-war taking place in Canada. However, they could simply have been investigating the Crupi family’s involvement in the mob.
Additionally, the police in the Toronto area, including those who are familiar with the Mafia members, see nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently there is no sense of incoming war. So, either the Coluccio and Figliomenti clans are reeling in their tension, or they have come come to an agreement about the mob war not be taking place, or perhaps they are just being really quiet and sneaky.
Moral of the story: stop worrying, it’s all speculation.