Link to French-language article:

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/04/un-homme-agresse-a-larme-blanche-dans-un-bar

Translation (using Google Translate):

Stumped in a long past bar.
The place had already been the target of a Molotov cocktail in an attack linked to Italian organized crime.

The Rivière-des-Prairies bar, where a man was stabbed on Monday morning, has a troubled past that has resulted in two long suspensions of his liquor license and a criminal arson attack on the mafia.

At approximately 3:50 am, a 37-year-old man was stabbed in the upper body at 6th Ave. Bar & Grill for a reason that remained to be cleared up by the investigators.

"The people inside refuse to cooperate, so it is impossible for the moment to determine the reason for the attack and to know more about the suspect," said Andrée-Anne Picard, spokesman for the Service de Police of the City of Montreal.

The life of the victim, however, was not in danger.

Suspensions

The licensed establishment of boulevard Maurice-Duplessis, formerly known as Café Liana, has been repeatedly targeted by the authorities.

Its liquor sales licenses had been suspended for 20 days by the Liquor, Racing and Gaming Authority (RACJ) because of multiple shortcomings last July.

In addition to tolerating the presence of miners on site, the tenant was exploiting one of the permits without having the required and functional layout. Among the many commitments that the owner had made to the RACJ to preserve his rights, he had to "actively collaborate with the police service" and "install and keep functional a surveillance camera system".


The commissioners had also banned the operation of the establishment for 23 days in April 2016 for the same reasons. A local employee had also tried to hinder the work of a police officer.

In September of the same year, while the bar was still called Café Liana under the same manager, he had been the target of a Molotov cocktail.

The SPVM investigators suspected that the beginning of the fire was a message sent to Marco Pizzi, a major player in the new Italian organized crime watchdog.

A month earlier, the 48-year-old man had been the target of a spectacular murder attempt in Montreal East. For several weeks, other businesses related to him had been hit by arsonists, just like his car.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2...sse-a-deja-fait-affaire-avec-des-mafieux

The V.-P. Martine Gaudreault shares her life with Alain Cormier, who was in business with people related to the Rizzuto clan

A major real estate finance manager of the Caisse de dépôt is a business partner and heart of a private lender long linked to the mafia clan Rizzuto, discovered our Investigation Bureau.

Since February 2010, Martine Gaudreault has been the Vice-President Real Estate Financing, Quebec and Eastern Canada, for Otéra Capital.

Otéra is a major subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Quebec's wool sock. He is a major player, with loans totaling $ 12.3 billion.

Ms. Gaudreault is the spouse of the lender Alain Cormier, president of the alternative loan firm Bancan. Research in Alain Cormier's business relations allowed us to discover the following:

Between 2008 and 2012, while in a relationship with Martine Gaudreault, Alain Cormier was in business with two members of the Rizzuto mafia family (see box). This is Leonardo Rizzuto, the son of Vito Rizzuto (former sponsor of the Montreal Mafia, now deceased), and Giovanna Cammalleri, who was the wife of Vito Rizzuto.
In 2009, Alain Cormier became a director of the company that was the promoter of the famous 1000 de la Commune in Montreal, the famous real estate project of Tony Magi, shot on January 24th.
The spouse of V.-P. Otéra also took out a loan with money laundering firm Samy Bitton in 2011.

Over the years, Martine Gaudreault also had business ties with her husband. They have been involved together in three companies since 2012.

In April 2012, she became the sole shareholder of a company that had been created by her husband and entrepreneur Gary Iacobaccio.

The latter has a criminal past and has been in business with Giuseppe Focarazzo, a man related to the Rizzuto clan.

Then, in June 2014, Gaudreault and Cormier both become involved in two numbered companies that will be used to purchase buildings totaling $ 3.2 million.

One of these buildings, on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Little Italy, now houses a branch of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ).

According to the Register of Personal and Movable Real Rights (RPMRR), Alain Cormier also donated $ 100,000 to Ms. Gaudreault, who allowed her to acquire a house in Laval, which she is still owner. The residence, paid $ 340,000 in 2001, is now valued at nearly $ 1 million.

According to Otéra's code of ethics, employees like Ms. Gaudreault must be very cautious. They must ask themselves if their actions and decisions will "withstand the closest public scrutiny", and whether they could "cause a negative perception in [their] place or place of Otéra".

They must finally ensure that they do not participate, directly or indirectly, in important financial activities that could compete with those of Otéra.

Donald Riendeau, Ethics Specialist and Director of the Institute of Trust in Organizations, considers these facts "extremely worrying".

"Ms. Gaudreault occupies extremely important functions. It raises important questions about conflicts of interest and the protection of savers' assets, "he says.

"I do not have to talk to you as a journalist," said Martine Gaudreault yesterday, attached to the phone.

The Vice President said she did not know "absolutely" Gary Iacobaccio.

"I have nothing to say," she repeated three times before ending the conversation.

His spouse Alain Cormier stated that Martine Gaudreault was not aware of her business ties.

For its part, the spokesman of Otéra, Melanie Charbonneau, said yesterday that the organization was carrying out checks.

In April 2008, the numbered companies of Alain Cormier, Leonardo Rizzuto and Giovanna Cammalleri became shareholders of another numbered company, 9188-5863 Québec inc.

In November 2007, 9188-5863 Québec inc. had bought land for a residential complex in LaSalle, for $ 1 million. Alain Cormier was one of the guarantors of the loan that allowed the purchase of the land.

HE CLAIMS THAT HIS WIFE DID NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT
The lender Alain Cormier assures that his wife Martine Gaudreault, vice-president of a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt, did not know anything about her business ties with individuals linked to organized crime, before our Investigation Office did not know her. contact about it.

"My girlfriend knows nothing about that," he said when we joined him yesterday morning.

"My spouse manages her life, I manage my life! That I made funding ten years ago ... It's the most honest person, the straightest person I know in my life. You know what you are going to do. You're going to mess up everything, "he said.

Here is what he had to say about:

His business connections with mafia-related or criminal-sentenced individuals:

"I have nothing to do with this milieu: I am a financier, I lend money, I do real estate."

His involvement in a condo project in the LaSalle borough, where he jointly invested with a company controlled by the Rizzuto family:

"I may have done some funding, but not done, uh ... and never with the Rizzuto family! You mix a lot of things, sir. "

A little later, he explained to know Leonardo Rizzuto, because the latter is a customer of the family jewelery. "I met him there, yes."

His involvement in the 1000 of the Commune, from 2009:

"I was in the project two days. I wanted to buy the project; finally, it did not work and I left the company. "

(In fact, the Québec Business Register indicates that it still signed documents for the company in 2010.)

The steps of our Investigation Office:

"You're just going to make big crap. "

Mr. Cormier promised yesterday morning to answer our questions in detail when he would have access to his documents, but he did not finally call back.

In January 2009, Alain Cormier and Ricardo Magi (brother of Tony Magi) are shareholders and administrators of the firm Les Développements Harbourteam, promoter of 1000 de la Commune.

Cormier will be stationed at least until August 2010, according to public records.

The Commune 1000 project was initiated by Tony Magi, shot dead on January 24th.

The former godfather Vito Rizzuto had acted in the shadows as conductor of the construction of this luxury condo complex near the Old Port of Montreal.

Rizzuto was rewarded by receiving five condos for the modest sum of $ 1, which he then sold for $ 1.7 million.

"It's still a good profit," investigator Éric Vecchio quipped during a testimony to the Charbonneau commission in March 2014.

In February 2011, a real estate company of Alain Cormier borrows $ 150,000 from Samprêt plus inc., A firm owned by Samy Bitton.

Cormier is using this money to buy a single-family home in Laval.

Bitton is well known to the police. In January 2016, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Tel Aviv for money laundering related to drug trafficking.

On the phone, Cormier also told us that he was a broker in the sale to Samy Bitton of the construction rights that were used for the 5th wharf project.

This condo project in Old Montreal was abandoned after Mr. Bitton's imprisonment in Israel.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/lo...-54-month-prison-term-for-drug-smuggling

Beaconsfield resident gets 54-month prison term for drug smuggling

In relation to Ciment's post two posts back.

Caisse suspends subsidiary vice-president over alleged ties of spouse with Mafia

https://o.canada.com/pmn/business-p...-over-alleged-ties-of-spouse-with-mafia/

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...r-un-tenor-du-crime-et-ses-complices.php

Louis Nagy, who has been on the radar of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) a few times over the years, was sentenced to four years and eight months of penitentiary yesterday.

Two of his accomplices, Robert Bryant and Marco Milan, received sentences of three years and eight months for the first and two and a half years for the second. A fourth accomplice, Dean Copkov, a movie stuntman, was murdered in a context of theft that went wrong in Ontario the day before the pleading. In his case, the prosecution filed a stay of proceedings.

Nagy, Bryant, Milan and Copkov were arrested in 2013 by the RCMP after an investigation called "Unmarried" by which the federal police fanned two plots to import tons of hashish and cocaine. However, they were conspiracies, no drugs were seized.

After a jury trial, Bryant and Milan were found guilty of importing hashish and cocaine, while Nagy and Copkov were convicted of the only hashish import conspiracy .

Louis Nagy, 59, is well known to the police, especially the RCMP. In the early 2000s, he and a score of other individuals had been arrested and charged after a spectacular investigation called Chevalin in which the federal police had carried out about fifty searches and seized in particular more than 4000 kilograms hashish and prohibited weapons. Nagy had been sentenced to eight years as a penitentiary in this case.

Louis Nagy is close to the boss Raynald Desjardins, who is currently being held for plotting the murder of aspiring sponsor Salvatore Montagna, who was killed in November 2011.

Vincent Chiara, director of a major cannabis company and owner of the CBC tower, wants to sue people who associate him with the Rizzutos

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...uivre-les-usagers-dun-forum-boursier.php

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/rcmp-money-laundering-1.5013912

RCMP break up alleged money-laundering ring in Montreal, Toronto

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...international-de-blanchiment-dargent.php

he Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been dismantling an important money laundering network based in Toronto and Montreal since 6:00 am, with links to other countries.

More than 300 police officers from the RCMP's Division C Crime Products Division (Quebec), the RCMP in Ontario, Laval, Montreal and Toronto are participating in the operation.

A total of 19 individuals are targeted, 12 in the Montreal area and seven in the Toronto area, where the suspected leaders of the network were located. Eleven searches are planned.

According to our sources, this is a money-laundering network that offers turnkey services to drug traffickers, and has connections with several countries, including Iran, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. .

According to information that has not been confirmed, the suspects reportedly used at least one exchange office in the Toronto area.

Investigation of more than two years

The collector investigation began more than two years ago. During the investigation, between May 2016 and August 2018, the police found large quantities of cannabis, cocaine, hashish and methamphetamine that were not specified. They also seized more than 1.7 million in Canadian money and various currencies.

The Canada Revenue Agency is involved in the file and we are talking about blocking buildings worth more than $ 15 million.

Suspects arrested in Toronto will be transported to Montreal aboard an RCMP-owned aircraft. All suspects are scheduled to appear tomorrow at the Montreal Courthouse.

The RCMP will explain its investigation tomorrow at a press conference at 10:00 am at C Division Headquarters on Dorchester Street in Montreal.

^^^^
Two people arrested in Toronto have already arrived in Quebec.

Link to tweet by GRC Québec / Quebec RCMP (two photos accompany the tweet):

https://twitter.com/grcqc/status/1094991452671787009

Attempted murder in Laval: the crime could be related to narcotics

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...-pourrait-etre-relie-aux-stupefiants.php

Excerpt a bit farther below is from the article to which I've linked immediately below.

The El Chapo jury is re-examining testimony from three key narcos. Here's what they told the court
https://nationalpost.com/news/world...ey-narcos-heres-what-they-told-the-court

Transcripts obtained by the National Post show Alex outlining another Canadian relationship — an agreement for cocaine, heroin and crystal meth deals with “Tony Suzuki.” This is believed to be Antonio Pietrantonio of the Montreal mafia.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/lo...oney-laundering-ring-in-montreal-toronto

Drugs and cash seized in RCMP raids in Montreal and Toronto

The 35-year-old victim died in the hospital. The file was transferred to the Sûreté du Québec.

There are 33 good photos, slides, and charts to be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/grc-rcmp-quebec/. Some examples are below.

Projet_Collecteur_Project.indd by GRC/RCMP, on Flickr

Projet_Collecteur_Project.indd by GRC/RCMP, on Flickr

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/14/quatre-condos-payes-cash-en-une-seule-annee

Four paid cash condos in one year
The Quebec leader of the network dismantled Monday by the RCMP could lose everything

The Lavallois at the head of the network that laundered the millions of dollars of organized crime in Quebec has had no trouble to afford four condos in one year, he paid cash.

However, Mohamad Jaber is now in jail since the RCMP's Collector operation on Monday, and the federal treasury could inherit the many properties he acquired when he was clearing money from drug traffickers.

Jaber, 51, is charged with tax evasion, gangsterism, money laundering, conspiracy and money laundering.

He and Nader Gramian-Nik - the Ontario network leader who got his $ 7-million "castle" near Toronto - "failed to report multi-million dollar revenues between 2013 and 2017," according to the Director of Criminal Investigations of the Canada Revenue Agency, Stéphane Bonin.

To ensure that Jaber gets what he owes, the IRS obtained court blocking orders from six condos owned by Jaber.

More than $ 3 million

This includes the four that he bought cash in 2015 in Laval, Montreal and Mont-Tremblant, as well as a house and another condo acquired in 2017, according to court documents and notarial deeds that Le Journal consulted.

The present value of these six properties exceeds $ 3 million.


In May 2015, Jaber purchased the $ 1.1 million condo he owned when he was arrested on Avenue Jean-Béraud in Laval. Seven months later, he got his hands on a nearby condo for $ 740,000.

That year, he also bought one for $ 411,900 in Côte-Saint-Paul, Montreal, and another $ 215,000 in Mont-Tremblant.

He lodged his lieutenant

He also owns a house on Laval's Fafard Street, which served as home to his alleged right hand man and number two in the dismantled network's Quebec cell, Kamel Ghaddar, also accused in this case.

If Jaber is unable to pay his tax debt, the federal agency will then ask the courts to confiscate the foreclosed property for his benefit.

He remains the owner of the six condos pending further legal proceedings. But he is forbidden to sell them and he must "keep them in good condition" to "save their value," according to the ordinances.

THE ADDRESSES OF HIS RESIDENCES
1050 Drummond , Montreal (paid $ 404,597 in 2017)
5077 Paré , Montreal (paid $ 471,181 in 2015)
3635 Jean-Béraud , Laval (paid $ 1,160,000 in 2015)
3635 Jean-Béraud , Laval (paid $ 740,000 in 2015)
2879 Village Road , Mont-Tremblant (paid $ 215,000 in 2015)
4330 Fafard , Laval (paid $ 180,000 in 2004)

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...a-la-mafia-atteint-par-balle-a-laval.php

Cocaine importer linked to mafia shot in Laval

The victim of last night's murder attempt in Laval is Ray Kahno, an importer of cocaine arrested and sentenced in the wake of the Colisée Anti-Mafia investigation in 2006, La Presse learned .

Kahno, 42, is in critical condition in the hospital.

"We received a call around 11:48 pm for a man lying on the ground near his car, at the corner of Pothier and Edinburgh streets, in the Vimont district. When the police arrived, the man was semi-conscious. The paramedics transported him to the hospital, but it was there that we realized that he had been shot, "said police officer Stephanie Beshara of Laval.

Ray Khano, in 2006 .... (Photo Alain Roberge, La Presse archives) - image 2.0
Enlarge
Ray Khano, in 2006.

PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES

The spokeswoman did not want to confirm the identity of the victim saying "she was known to the police." But according to our sources, it is Ray Khano who would have been hit by at least one bullet in the head.

Cocaine in PET

Following the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Coliseum survey in November 2006, Kahno was sentenced to eight years and two months of penitentiary for import and conspiracy for possession of cocaine for the purpose of smuggling. He and a partner, Giuseppe Torre, were responsible for the Montreal Mafia's cocaine imports from Montréal-Trudeau Airport, including bribing customs officers.

During the Coliseum investigation, Kahno found himself in the hot water when Mafia bosses based at the Consenza Social Club realized that 100 kg of cocaine had been unknowingly imported into a cargo of 218 kilograms seized at the time. Trudeau Airport in January 2005. Later, however, he denied his involvement in this case and indicated that he had no debt as a result of this case.

To add to their evidence against him during the Coliseum investigation, the investigators stole $ 3 million from family members and disguised the crime as a break and enter. This surreptitious operation angered Kahno, who suspected a family member and asked an accomplice to bring a weapon. The police, who were listening to Kahno, then found a pretext to intercept the two men near the RCMP headquarters in Westmount and arrest them.

Kahno was automatically released at two-thirds of his sentence in March 2015, but on at least two occasions his parole was suspended, including because he had ended up with an individual linked to organized crime and having a history of narcotics.

In front of the parole board, Kahno said he was working with the mafia, but was not part of it, and thought he would retire from the crime before being arrested in November 2006.

Two events in three days

This is the 2 th time in three days that an individual is suffering gunshot in Laval. On Monday morning at around 4:00 am, a 33-year-old man, Eliott Blanchard, was found injured near a vehicle in a municipal parking lot on Avenue du Havre-des-ÃŽles in the Chomedey neighborhood. He died in the hospital several hours later.

Blanchard had a history of narcotics and the police do not exclude that it is the motive of the crime. The investigation was transferred to the Sûreté du Québec because of possible links with organized crime.

It is too early to determine if the two events are related. For the moment, there is no indication that this is the case, but investigators should still consider this possibility.

Wow Ray is a high profile guy,.

Related to Ciment's post (two posts back).

Man, 42, in critical condition after being shot in Laval's Vimont neighbourhood

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/laval-shooting-1.5018998

^^^^
Ray Kahno has died in hospital.

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...tateur-de-cocaine-ray-kahno-est-mort.php

Can someone fill me in on who ray kahno is and who was he affiliated with and also who may have wanted him dead lol thanks

He his a drug trafficker affiliated with the Rizzuto's. He belonged to the Francesco Arcadi cell.

Also worked with Ponytail De Vito.

De Vito was also part of the Arcadi cell until he broke off and started his own faction.

Cocaine smuggler with ties to the Mafia shot dead in Laval https://montrealgazette.com/news/lo...ssault-leaves-man-in-critical-condition/

The following powerpoint has names and pictures of the Arcadi cell and yes some defected but not all.

https://www.ceic.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/centre_documentaire/Piece_11P-126.pdf

Very cool powerpoint Ciment, thank you for sharing.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/15/il-a-fait-perdre-des-millions-a-la-mafia

He lost millions for the Mafia

An importer of coke, held responsible by the mafia for the closing of one of its drug entry doors at the Montreal airport, was shot dead in the street in Laval, in what looks like a settlement of accounts.

Just before midnight on Wednesday, 42-year-old Ray Kanho was hit by at least one bullet in the head when he was a few meters away from his vehicle, at the corner of Potier and Edinburgh streets in the city. Vimont district.

In all likelihood, he tried to flee his assailant before being hit and collapsing. His death was confirmed at the hospital a few hours later.

Kanho had trouble with the Rizzuto clan, especially with Giuseppe De Vito 14 years ago, because of a cocaine import that had gone wrong.

Historical entry


On January 22, 2005, the Canada Border Services Agency discovered 218 kg of drugs, valued at $ 27 million, hidden in two baggage containers on a flight from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

In telephone conversations intercepted during the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Colisée investigation, Kanho told one of his associates that De Vito held him responsible for the failure of the operation.

He reportedly threatened to liquidate him if he did not quickly pay up to $ 1 million in "taxes" to the criminal organization.


It's because, in the eyes of the boss, the importer and his acolytes, Giuseppe Torre and Frank Faustini, had "burned his front door" at the Montreal airport by trying to bring in more coke than what had been allowed.

Personal profit

Not to mention that the extra 98 kg were for their own profit, an affront to De Vito, died poisoned in prison in 2013. The leaders of the mafia had also discovered the pot with the roses on one of the Journal.

The trio had made at least three more illegal imports under the nose of the Sicilian clan, but which were known to De Vito, before being pinched.

The Laval resident would have "settled" his penalty for a few hundred thousand dollars, in order to continue working with them and calm tensions.

Another failure

Almost a year to the day, after this fiasco, another cocaine delivery plot with Kanho at his head was foiled by the agents, revealing court documents.

The 38 kg of drugs had been concealed in metal containers carrying the meal trays of an airplane bound for Montreal from Venezuela, this time.
Arrested in November 2006, he was sentenced to 14 years of penitentiary after his trial in 2009. He was free as the air since December 2017.

One month before his arrest, the RCMP "stole" more than $ 2.8 million in cash from his parents' home to advance the Colisée investigation. This money belonged mainly to his partner Torre and to Francesco Del Balso, one of the lieutenants of the Rizzuto family.

According to our sources, Ray Kanho was still active in the underworld.

This attack comes just days after the murder of another narcotics trafficker linked to organized crime. Eliott Blanchard, 35, was shot in similar circumstances early Monday morning in a public parking lot on Havre-des-Iles Street, still in Laval.

He had been arrested in 2013 in another record seizure of narcotics; this time it was the equivalent of two million methamphetamine tablets.

It is the Sûreté du Québec's investigators of crimes against the person who must now shed light on these unrelated cases.

The hitman wanted for murdering the nephew of a former Montreal mafia boss two weeks ago in Ontario may well be a Quebecker.
This is the hypothesis envisaged by the Hamilton police, who has just released images of the gunman suspected of the murder of Cece Luppino, hoping that the public will be able to identify him and help stop him.
"It is certainly in the realm of possibility that the suspect lives in Quebec. This is one of the avenues we are exploring, "confirmed Detective Sergeant Peter Thom, who conducts three homicide investigations in Hamilton with a potential Quebec connection.

Cece Luppino, 43, was shot dead at his home in the middle of the afternoon of 30 January. Surveillance cameras from his home filmed the man who killed him.
We can see the suspect approaching the house with his right hand inside his coat, presumably holding a firearm.

Luppino worked in the real estate field and did not have a criminal record. His grandfather Giacomo and his father Rocco, however, were notorious Mafiosi in the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, present in Ontario.

He was also the nephew of Paolo Violi, the last sponsor of the Montreal Mafia who was shot dead on January 22, 1978, near the Reggio Bar in Saint-Léonard.
The end of Calabria
The murder of Violi - who succeeded Vic Cotroni, jailed for contempt of court after his testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into Organized Crime (CECO) - ended the reign of the Calabrians at the head of the Italian mafia, for the benefit of the Rizzuto clan.
In 2018, the brothers Domenico and Giuseppe Violi, cousins ​​of Cece Luppino, were sentenced to long prison terms for being involved in a trafficking network of cocaine and fentanyl.
The murder of Luppino is the third in two years to be linked to the mafia in Hamilton. The police wonder if these killings are all part of a power struggle in which organized crime in Quebec could be involved.
On May 2, 2017, suspects aboard a car registered in Quebec murdered Angelo Musitano, whose family was an ally of the Rizzuto clan.
Then, September 6, 2018, it was the turn of another Mafioso, Albert Iavarone, to undergo the same fate.
Antonio's brother Antonio (Tony) Iavarone did not fail to draw the attention of the police on December 1, since he was one of 270 guests at the sumptuous wedding of influential Hells Angel Martin Robert in downtown Montreal.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/15/qui-est-ce-tireur-recherche--en-ontario-et-au-quebec

The Italian Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA) reports on the Italian-Canadian Mafia.

http://comunicalo.it/2019/02/13/mafia-italo-canadese-dia-il-clan-rizzuto-meno-influente/