Organized crime

Bigger than Gomery? Quebec corruption inquiry set to get underway

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Jonathan Montpetit and Sidhartha Banerjee – May 20, 2012

A public inquiry endowed with wide-ranging powers will begin hearings on Tuesday into the inner workings of Quebec's construction industry, and experts are warning the contents may not be pretty.

The long-awaited inquiry threatens to implicate dozens of businesses, local and provincial governments, political parties, and even explore links to organized crime.Given the size of the companies at the heart of the inquiry, its findings could also reach well beyond Quebec's borders.

Montreal corruption sweep arrests nine

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Frank Zampino

Peter Rakobowchuk – May 17, 2012

Police arrested nine people in a massive anti-corruption sweep that nabbed several former key members of Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay’s inner circle.

With Thursday’s dragnet, the corruption scandals that have rocked Quebec over the last four years have returned home to where they started: Montreal’s city hall.

RCMP challenging request for evidence on the Mafia

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Sidhartha Banerjee – April 19, 2012

Federal lawyers say a high-profile Quebec corruption inquiry can't compel the RCMP to sift though, and share, a treasure trove of information on the Mafia. Lawyers representing the Mounties were in a Montreal courtroom Wednesday fighting off demands for information from Quebec's Charbonneau inquiry.

Lawyers for the inquiry want access to the massive amount of evidence gathered during Operation Colisee, a police probe that concluded in 2006 and is considered the largest such investigation into the Mob in Canadian history.

Montreal Construction Mafia – Collapse Imminent

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David Love – April 1, 2012

Investigations and wiretaps by the RCMP have proven the existence of direct links between the Mafia and construction firms throughout Quebec, according to the Charbonneau Commission. Many Quebecers are shell-shocked after months of apparently well-founded allegations of infiltration of public-works contracts by organized crime, and the clock ticks on with no arrests.

This corruption is so insidious that the former Montreal police chief, Jacques Duchesneau, who was the lead investigator into allegations of corruption, was fired recently — his contract cancelled.

RCMP refuses to hand over Mafia tapes

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Charbonneau Commission says evidence could tie mob, Quebec construction firms

William Marsden – March 20, 2012

From June 2003 to November 2006, police from the RCMP-led Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, who had been investigating the Mafia since September 2002, recorded thousands of conversations at the Consenza Social Club, a small, unassuming café tucked inside a strip mall in St. Léonard.

Police bugged an office behind the main café where Mafia bosses met daily to discuss business and divide the cash profits that flowed like a river of gold from their extensive drug, loansharking and gambling networks.

Crime study on construction industry hampered by silence

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The Canadian Press – February 13, 2012

An $80,000 federal study into organized crime in the construction industry has been plagued by people's refusal to be interviewed. Of the 35 organizations contacted by the study authors, only six responded by putting forward representatives willing to speak.

The study authors say they tried interviewing contractors, union representatives, provincial prosecutors and law-enforcement agencies.

Provincial differences put unique spins on financial fraud: RCMP report

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Kathryn Blaze Carlson – February 6, 2012

Canada’s four biggest provinces are epicentres for markedly different capital market schemes, according to an internal report by the RCMP, with each regional trend related to the particular characteristics of that place.

Experts say the report’s provincial profiles hinge mostly on demographics — the sorts of investors who live there, the prevalence of criminalized professionals, and the types of organized crime groups rooted there. For example, the Montreal mafia has a history of boiler-room schemes and stock market manipulation, while Nigerian organized crime groups in Ontario have been involved in telemarketing and investor fraud, said criminologist Stephen Schneider.

Billionaire fights expulsion from Canada

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Sidhartha Banerjee – February 2, 2012

A billionaire member of Tunisia’s once-dominant ruling clan whose stay in Canada since last year has been shrouded in mystery is scheduled to make a public appearance soon.

Belhassen Trabelsi has remained under the radar since a much-publicized arrival amid turmoil in his native Tunisia, where his family stands accused of siphoning millions of dollars from the state.

Italy's crisis opens doors to cash-rich mafia

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Valentina Za – January 13, 2012

When Italian construction group Perego was struggling back in 2008, a white knight flush with cash rode to its rescue. Unfortunately the "knight" was a powerful mafia organization, the 'Ndrangheta, which went on to take control of the family-owned Lombardy business and tried to steer it on an expansion path, Italian justice authorities say.

"Luckily it failed," said Milan judge Giuseppe Gennari. The group has since collapsed and former chairman Ivano Perego is awaiting trial for opening his door to the crime syndicate.

Bloated Montreal police force helpless against Mafia

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Henry Aubin – January 18, 2012

City police Chief Marc Parent is seeking to reassure Montrealers. He said on Tuesday that a retired police detective had failed in his attempt to sell to the Mafia a top-secret list of undercover officers and other police informants. As it happens, the ex-detective died the next day.

So, end of story? Hardly. It's a relief to hear that no informants lost their lives. But the larger matter — the police's overall performance against organized crime — is not reassuring at all.

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