COURT DOCUMENTS OFFER SLICE OF MAFIA LIFE

RCMP Kept Eye On Consenza Social Club. Bugs, Video Catch The Bosses
Counting Money And Agonizing Over Which Luxury Car To Buy

Kidnappings, murders, drug deals, grasping wives and painful hair
transplants are all part of an Italian Mafia lifestyle described in
court documents recently unsealed in Quebec Superior Court.

The documents relate how Mafia bosses met regularly at their
headquarters, the Consenza Social Club at 4891 Jarry St. E., where
runners brought them huge amounts of packaged cash.

The RCMP bugged and videotaped the inside of the club. The photos and
recordings show

Nicolo (Nick) Rizzuto, Francesco Arcadi, Paolo Renda and other bosses
counting money and dividing it among them.

Rizzuto came to the club several times a week to get his cash.

The documents indicate the alleged Mafia godfather is a man of few
words. Runners would deliver bags of money and all Rizzuto would say
was: "How much is it?"

Then he would count it, separating it into piles that were then
divided among the bosses. Rizzuto often stuffed the cash into his
socks and walked out.

Rizzuto, 82, was one of 91 Mafiosi arrested in November after a
two-year investigation code-named Project Colisee. Like most of the
other defendants, he faces drug trafficking and gangsterism charges.

The tapes indicate Mafia bosses had trouble deciding what kind of
luxury cars they should buy.

Francesco Del Balso, who is alleged in court records to have
laundered millions of dollars through the Montreal Casino, spent
hours talking about whether he should buy a yellow Ferrari or a Porsche.

Police tapes also picked up lengthy conversations about the attempted
murder of heroin dealer Javal Mohammad Novarian, who was shot in the
groin at the Globe bar on St. Laurent Blvd. on April 18, 2004.
Lorenzo (Skunk) Giordano, who is a fugitive from justice, has been
charged in the shooting.

Two police officers visited Novarian, 51, in a hospital after the
shooting to seek his co-operation as a witness. He refused to
identify the shooter. "I have four children," Novarian said.

The court papers say police also visited Rizzuto's lawyer, Loris
Cavaliere, who promised he got the word out that the perpetrators of
the shooting were to "stop drinking and making trouble."

The police picked up conversations in which Renda warned Giordano not
to drink so much and start gunfights that could "attract attention to
themselves."

Other incidents included a gunfight at the Moomba bar in Laval, where
Thierry Beaubrun, 31, shot and killed Mafia enforcer Michael (Big
Mike) Lapolla, 38. Beaubrun was, in turn, shot and killed outside the
club. Recordings from the Consenza club picked up Giordano claiming
Mike "had no chance." Andrea Di Paolo, 29, was accused of obstructing
justice by hiding a gun inside a garbage can while police searched the club.

The tapes also indicate a Mafia war almost broke out between the
d'Amico family in Granby and the clan of Francesco (Compare Franco)
Arcadi, alleged to be one of Rizzuto's underbosses.

Another war nearly erupted when Nicola Varacalli, the father of club
owner Mario Varacalli, was kidnapped by four "disguised" men. He was
released unharmed later.

Among the lavish spenders revealed in the documents were Giuseppe
Torre and his wife, Polisena Delle Donne.

Married in 1996 and the parents of three children, Torre and Delle
Donne lived the high life. Under cover of being salaried employees of
Torre's company MALTS Financing Inc. - a money-laundering front for
his cocaine profits - they spent as if they were millionaires, the
documents allege.

Torre, 35, a former food-services employee at Pierre Elliott Trudeau
International Airport, has been in jail since his arrest last fall.
Delle Donne, a former Air Canada flight attendant, was questioned and
released and has not been charged. Neither has a criminal record.

Before Torre's arrest, the couple lived together with their children
in a $1-million house they built in Laval's Duvernay district. Delle
Donne also owned a $350,000 villa in Acapulco, bought with the wife
of Torre's alleged partner in crime, Del Balso.

Delle Donne drove a BMW M3 but complained Torre didn't buy her a
Porsche 911. The couple also had a Ford Expedition, a Harley Davidson
motorcycle, a Vespa and another scooter. Torre drove a BMW 650i, a
Land Rover and two sporty Jeep TJs.

They had a live-in nanny for their kids - a Filipina they grudgingly
paid $300 a week; Torre and Delle Donne complained she wouldn't work overtime.

Torre - known as "Joe" or "Pep" - spent a lot of time in cafes and
bars, gambling away his illicit profits at cards and on professional
sports. He often lost big, dropping $100,000 in a single day in March
2005, for example.

His wife complained often about his habit, which kept him away from
home. "He's an animal," she said in one phone conversation with a
friend, also threatening to get a lawyer and divorce him.

But the money kept flowing. The couple kept packets of $1,000 cash in
a drawer in Torre's home office and racked up big travel expenses
flying all over the world.

They went to Mexico for vacations and boasted of spending $1,000 a
day there. They went to Italy and Germany to see friends and paid
$5,000 for second-row tickets at the World Cup in Hamburg. They flew
to New York and to Edmonton to see professional hockey games together.

Then there was the vanity fare: diamond-studded Rolex watches, a
$60,000 bracelet, a $70,000 ring, designer clothes for the kids,
Gucci boots and Dior shoes from Holt Renfrew, even a $3,000 hair
transplant for Torre. He complained the 1,050 grafts to his temples
and scalp hurt.

The secret behind all this profligacy? Running cocaine through
Trudeau airport, government prosecutors allege.