CRIMINAL MOBS IN HAMILTON                                                                                                                          

The City of Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario is located at the western part of Lake Ontario. In 2016, the  population was 536, 900. The city is 58 kilometres (36 miles) in area and is southwest of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. As much as   sixty percent of Canada's steel is produced in Hamilton by Stelco and Dofasco subsequently  the city has become known as the Steel Capital  of Canada.

Hamilton is home to 26,330 immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2010 and 13,150 immigrants who arrived between 2011 and 2016,German and Irish ancestry. 130,705 Hamiltonians claim English heritage, while 98,765 indicate their ancestors arrived from Scotland, 87,825 from Ireland, 62,335 from Italy, 50,400 from Germany.

                                                                                     

Alas, Hamilton has a group pf men who are not really wanted by the cities general population. I am speaking of the criminal mob.

Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called "protection".^[1] Gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture and community be referred to as a mafia, mob, of criminals may be referred to as the underworld. European sociologists (e.g. Diego Gambetta) define the mafia as a type organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi law enforcement. Gambetta's classic work on the Sicilian mafia generates an economic study of the mafia, : which exerts great influence on studies of the Russian mafia, the Chinese triads, Hong Kong mafia and the Japanese yakuza.

Hamilton's old Mob didn't die with the death of Daniel Gasbarrini who was a developer and a reputed key player in La Cosa Nostra's southern Ontario operations nor was the broad daylight parking lot execution of his childhood friend Johnny "Pops" Papalia that was some kind of final nail in the coffin of traditional organized crime back in 1997. This is the same for the 2009 peaceful passing of Vincenzo "Gimi" Luppino and the equally peaceful death 22 years earlier of his father, Giacomo Luppino, heralded as the last of Canada's old-style Mafia godfathers.

Actually organized crime is a lot like any other successful entrepreneurial enterprise. It is opportunistic and nimble, flowing with the times rather than standing against them.

Rocco Perri's gang ran rum, but they also traded in counterfeit bonds. His successors shook down bakeries, but also planned stock scams and mortgage frauds. And these days, their minions may mule frauds. And these days, their minions may slip across the borders, but they launder the profits through real estate flips, construction projects and food services.

"Because of that fluidity, they can go to where the best return on investment is going to be. They're not restricted by ethnicity or economic cast (anymore) — they will hook up with anyone."

Detective Martin, the officer in charge of the Mounties’ Hamilton/Niagara Regional Detachment, says the region's proximity to the border and its access to major markets makes this attractive territory for organized crime of all types such as drugs, financial crimes, human trafficking, fraud and tax evasion.

When police say "organized crime," most of us think of the Mob, or maybe bikers. But the legal definition is much broader: any crime committed by any group of at least three people co-operating to commit a serious crime for profit.

By that measure, Hamilton has its share: from the Gravelle crime family's repeated plots to import, grow and sell marijuana (and it's by-products) to the multipronged abuses of immigrants arranged by human traffickers like the Domotor-Kolompar organization, to the small Latin American-based Stoney Creek cocaine importation ring busted in October 2013.

Organized crime, Martin says, "looks like your next-door neighbour." "Look at that human trafficking ring (the Domotor-Kolompar group)," says Martin. "Who would have thought that would be happening in the 'sleepy hollow' of Ancaster? People lived right next door and had no idea who their neighbours really were. "They are also  mobsters and cowboys are here as well. The Hells Angels proudly fly their insignia on Barton Street and there are reports that the rival Outlaws are making a renewed effort here, recruiting via their Black Pistons "farm team."

Llongtime Mob-watcher and crime reporter Rob Lamberti warns that we'd be foolish to discount the various Mafia branches. The Italian authorities consider (the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta) to be the No. 1 organized crime group in the word — they seized billions of euros in assets from just one clan, the Commissos, recently. They have incredible wealth."

Being a mob leader has serious risks. Mob-related violence has taken on a life of its own in Hamilton and Southern Ontario in recent years, with several high profile shootings and hits making headlines. Experts say some sort of underworld power struggle is tearing through the region, as old scores are settled and players jockey for power in a time of unrest.

Mobsters, Pat Musitano was shot in Mississauga.a large city east of Hamilton and  Angelo Musitano was killed outside his home in 2017.       A Hamilton man,  Abril Abdalla, 27, ,was facing murder charges in the shooting deaths of mobster Angelo Musitano and Toronto woman Mila Barberi, and two other suspects were the subject of an international manhunt.

Barberi, 28, was killed while she sat in a BMW SUV parked outside a business in the middle of the afternoon in an industrial area of Vaughan, just north of Toronto. She was picking up her boyfriend, Saverio Serrano, 40, who police say has connections to organized crime and may have been the intended target.

Abdalla had been methodically stalking the notorious mobster and gunned him down in daylight thereby bringing bringing about a siege against the once-mighty crime family. The Musitanos were killed just before the 20-year anniversary of the famous hit on mobster, Papalia, to which they were  forever linked. The brothers reached a deal and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the death of mobster Barillaro. In turn, the charges against them in connection with Papalia's death were dropped.

In the year 2011, the government of Canada passed a law that if you kill more than one person, the killer will serve 25 years in prison for each of the killings.  

Abril Abdalla was 27 years old when he killed his three victims, hence he will have to serve 75 years in prison before he can apply for parole. His release is unlikely while he is alive because he would be 102 years of age when he would be eligible to be released from prison.  

                                                  

After years of relative calm, police in Hamilton and across Ontario suddenly have their hands full with brazen attacks on people with connections to organized crime.

Cece Luppino's shooting death in February 2019 marked Hamilton's third killing in two years where the victim has some link to the mob. All of shootings were similar, with the victims being  gunned down at their homes.  

There is no doubt in my mind that the citizens will be thinking, “At last, the mobsters will all  be gone.” That is like saying to yourself when you swat a mosquito on your arm, “At last They will all be gone.”

Police have said a recent surge of violence in the Toronto and Montreal areas which seems to be connected to a power struggle, as different organized crime factions vie for position, and old scores are seemingly settled.

         Being a member of a criminal mob or a multiple killer has   serious consequences  that ordinary la-biding people don’t have to experience during  their lives. And yet, mobsters and killers are willing to take the risk.