What's going on in Canada?

Or, An Inquiry into the Curious Mildness of Dominion Crime in Comparison with the Tumultuous Republic; Together with Observations on the Singular Silence Surrounding Said Contrast, and Certain Peripheral Notes Concerning Buffalo, New York, and the Question of Rats.

So, as I've it mentioned before, but Canada is pretty much the global capital of organized crime. Something big happened in the news in Canada last week, though you likely missed it because in America we don't seem to care about this? It is odd. 

York Police, after a lengthy investigation, arrested 8 current and retired Toronto police officers for being on the mob payroll. 

Think about that for a second in the context of America: imagine if the federal government arrested 8 officers from any major city because they were on the payroll of the mob. This would be a pretty big deal. But when it is in Toronto, Canada... eh? 

The story behind it is even wilder. Police learned that local organized crime were attempting to kill someone and so they put them in a safe house and gave them protection. But, even still, a kill team came for the dude. They were rebuffed due to the police presence. That didn't deter them as three kill teams came in 36 hours for the guy!

Again, think of that in an American context: can you imagine if the police were assigned to protect someone who was in danger of being killed by the mob and in 36 hours 3 kill teams came for the guy? That sounds like a movie, not real life. 

But alas, that is Canada's wild situation when it comes to crime, especially organized crime. I'll get into the why in another post. 

Back to the arrests... of course, one has to wonder how these hit squads are finding the guy under police protection right?  Well, at some point in time you have to start wondering if they've got someone on the inside. This was one part of the investigation which led to the arrests last week.

 This sounds like a movie, not real life. 

Speaking of sounding like a movie, let's shift our focus a little south, to Buffalo, NY. This small city on the border with Canada continues to be an intriguing world for organized crime. In 2017, wiretaps picked up something surprising: The Commission. What was once believed to be defunct, per wiretaps, was still actively involved in overseeing the American Mafia. Buffalo had sought permission from the Commission to appoint a Canadian, Domenico Violi, to the role of underboss.  

That police caught a reference to a commission decision on wiretaps is insane. That it happened about 8 years ago for the city of Buffalo...what? 

Currently, there has been the high profile trial and the investigation into Bongiovanni in Buffalo. The case continues to take interesting turns. Never mind the fact that a federal judge, when investigated in conjunction with this case, committed suicide and set aside another federal judge who recused himself when he saw the evidence of the state... a key witness happened to die by overdose before she could testify. Recently declassified documents from the DOJ show that they are investigating the death of the witness as "LCN related." LCN stands for La Cosa Nostra or, the Mafia. 

  

That it should be LCN related isn't too surprising. Remember, dead rats were found on the victims doorstep when police discovered she had overdosed. 

It's like a movie, but it isn't. It is real life. And unfortunately, people continue to die. But you'll not hear about this in the national media. Instead, they'll interrupt the Olympics to give us an update on the kidnapping of a celebrity's relative. Oh well.