MAFIA BOSS ORDERED EXTRADITED TO ITALY

Mounties Call Caruana The 'Gretzky' Of Organized Crime

TORONTO - Alfonso Caruana, one of the world's most powerful Mafia
bosses, has been ordered extradited to Sicily for his role as the
treasurer of Cosa Nostra's international narcotics trade.

Caruana, 58, faces a gruelling 21-year sentence in Italy to be served
in solitary confinement at a remote island prison.

Although police officers in Canada and Italy were celebrating the
decision by Justice David Watt yesterday, Caruana's lawyer said his
client will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

"The 'hotel' shouldn't be prepared just yet," said Joseph Neuberger
after the ruling.

He vowed a series of appeals -- both to Irwin Cotler, the Minister of
Justice, and to the Federal Court of Canada -- that could take two
years to deal with.

While Caruana's fate is now in the hands of Mr. Cotler, Judge Watt
made it clear there was little doubt about his underworld standing as
one of the chief architects of the international drug trade.

"Alfonso Caruana occupies a position in the upper echelons of a
criminal organization responsible for the importation of vast
quantities of cocaine," Judge Watt said in his ruling, which took
almost two hours for him to deliver.

"The role of Alfonso Caruana ... had to do with the financial end,"
Judge Watt said, describing his handling of Canadian and Swiss bank
accounts, real-estate transactions and the "laundering of dirty money
to make it appear clean."

There is evidence Caruana directed payments for massive drug shipments
as "an essential member of the group, vital to its success," he said.

The order is the most serious setback yet for Caruana. For decades, he
has been a figure of almost mythological stature in the underworld.

Born in Sicily on New Year's Day, 1946, he later took the reins of his
family's business -- a jet-set network that blended illicit drug
smuggling and money-laundering into a billion-dollar empire spanning
four continents.

Turning their back on Cosa Nostra's traditional base of Sicily, the
Caruanas obtained permission from other Mafia families to establish
their headquarters in Venezuela.

They later moved to Britain before settling in Montreal and taking out
Canadian citizenship.

Caruana, along with members of his family, later moved to Ontario,
settling in Woodbridge, just north of Toronto.

Although co-operating with Mafia clans around the world, the Caruanas
evolved into a new form of a transnational crime group, one that
avoided the gangland wars over territory that had hobbled many of
Italy's notorious mob clans. His profits were immense.

There was so much cash flowing through his hands, that family members
arrived at their Quebec credit union and tossed duffel bags filled
with cash from the back of a pickup truck for deposit into their accounts.

Caruana's longevity and power have earned him many names in many
places.

"Alfonso Caruana is just a name to us," said a Mafia observer in
Italy. "Like a ghost, he is often spoken of but never, ever seen."

When he was arrested in Ontario in 1998, charged in a drug-smuggling
operation a judge said was of "near-staggering proportions," the metaphor
used was perfectly Canadian: "If organized crime was a hockey game, Mr.
Caruana would be [Wayne] Gretzky," said RCMP Chief Superintendent Ben Soave,
in charge of the Caruana probe code named Project Omerta after the Mafia's
legendary code of silence.

Yesterday, Caruana looked far from being the Great
One.

He sat sullenly in the prisoner's box in Ontario Superior Court
wearing blue jeans and a prison-issue jacket; his black hair now
almost completely white.

He shifted only slightly during the rendering of the decision. His
son, Carmelo, sat behind him.

News of Caruana being ordered back to Italy to face his sentence for
Mafia association and drug offences was greeted warmly by Italian officials.

"The Minister of Justice in Italy will be glad to know this," said
Alessandro Cortese, a spokesman with the Italian embassy in Ottawa.
"This is the demonstration of our commitment in the fight against
organized crime. We have very tough anti-Mafia provisions."

Lee Lamothe, co-author of Bloodlines, a biography of the Caruana clan,
said the evidence shows the clear need to remove Caruana from Canada.

"If Alfonso Caruana is not extradited to Italy, it will be further
proof that Canada is a Mafia-friendly country," he said. "Canada will
be seen as a haven for any criminal anywhere who can exit his own
country before being arrested."