TORONTO MOBSTERS SEE THEIR CHANCE

It's not all gloom and doom as Greater Toronto Area mobsters huddle in
local social clubs to discuss the impact of the largest Mafia bust in
Canadian history.

The RCMP takedown of 73 alleged members of the Montreal-based Rizzuto
crime family last week has created an opportunity for more business
and less competition for organized criminals in Toronto, often seen as
the Second City of the Canadian underworld, local mob experts say.

Warrants are outstanding for another 18 accused members of the
Montreal organization, believed by police to be the richest mob group
in the country.

"The shift of power will come over to Toronto," says one local police
expert, who says the Canadian underworld pecking order has been upset.

"Who's in charge?" he asked. "This could lead to violence."

Many mobsters in the GTA area who aren't connected to the Rizzutos
have sported outsized smiles since last week's massive RCMP bust, a
police investigator says.

"Now, everything's up for grabs," one investigator says. "You're
seeing a lot of happy faces now."

Tier-two mobsters now have an opportunity to move up to the big
leagues in the cocaine-trafficking business that has long been
dominated by the Montrealers, mob experts say.

Some 1,300 charges were laid last week against the Rizzuto crime group
as part an operation dubbed "Project Colisee," in a reference to the
ancient, crumbling Roman landmark.

The RCMP-led crackdown included charges of gangsterism, drug
smuggling, bookmaking, attempted murder, extortion and possession of
restricted weapons.

The Canada Revenue Agency says it is also going after 82-year-old Nick
Rizzuto for $1.5 million in back taxes, alleging he ran an
online-betting operation that netted $25 million a year.

For local mobsters connected to the Rizzutos, it's important now to
maintain an appearance of calm, says Larry Tronstad, a private
investigator with the Detek Investigative Group in Vaughan, and
formerly an RCMP member of the elite Combined Forces Special
Investigations Unit, which targets organized crime.

Foreign cocaine wholesalers need to be reassured that they can
continue to do business as usual, while local mobsters must be
cautioned not to get too aggressive, experts say.

"The biggest problem they have is keeping everybody calm on their
supply side," Tronstad says.

While the Rizzuto crime group hasn't dominated the local mob scene,
they have definitely had a major influence, experts say.

Francesco Arcadi, 53, arrested last week in a Quebec country cottage,
sporting a camouflage jacket, was frequently seen in Woodbridge over
the past year, visiting mob hangouts, including a members-only sports
bar.

Arcadi would fly to Toronto first-class with a portly Montrealer, who
chauffeured him about in a rented sport utility vehicle as they
visited GTA mobsters.

Nick Rizzuto's son, Vito, 60, lived in Montreal but ran GTA waste
disposal and discount coffin businesses. He is now in custody in the
U.S., where he faces a racketeering indictment for allegedly murdering
three Bonanno crime family members in 1981 in New York.

"Arcadi was considered the face of the Rizzuto crime family on the
street, after the arrest of Vito," says local author Antonio Nicaso,
who has written more than a dozen books on organized crime, and who's
now writing one on the Rizzuto crime family with Quebec journalist
Andre Cedilot.

Nick Rizzuto was so well-dressed in a tailored suit when he was
arrested last week that there were rumours that he was tipped off to
the busts. He had taken on a higher profile after Vito was extradited
to the U.S. last August.

Over the past few months, Nick Rizzuto was often seen in north
Montreal, meeting with Arcadi at the Association de Cattolica Eraclea,
a grungy coffee shop formerly known as the Cosenza Social Club.

Nick Rizzuto's father-in-law, the late Antonio Manno, was considered
the underworld boss of the town of Cattolica Eraclea in Sicily.

Here in the GTA, long-time underworld figures associated with the
Rizzutos include a 76-year-old with a bad heart who would rather spend
his winters in Florida; a 71-year-old Grade 5 dropout who collected
workplace compensation benefits after claiming a construction injury;
and a 77-year-old, who played host to Nick Rizzuto and Tommaso
Buscetta of Sicily back in happier times, before the elder Rizzuto was
locked up and Buscetta turned informer.

Such underworld veterans have seen rough times before, and take police
busts as a cost of doing business, Tronstad said. He dismisses the
idea that the Rizzuto crime family has been knocked out of business,
either in Montreal or Toronto.

"I just don't believe for a second that these guys don't have a
disaster plan," Tronstad says, noting that a mobster once told him,
"Every once in a while, the quarterback gets hurt."

It's possible to run a mob enterprise from prison, Tronstad says,
adding he thinks the organization's replacement leaders will keep a
low profile.

"These guys will be reluctant to be seen out and about," he adds. "Now
is not the time to be visible."

Cedilot says he expects new acting leaders of the Rizzuto organization
to emerge, and struggle to stay low profile.

"It's a pyramid," Cedilot says, adding that the organization relies
heavily on professionals like lawyers and financial planners to
maintain its power.

Among the suspects charged last week in Project Colisee are 10 workers
at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport in Montreal and a Canada Border
Services Agency employee, accused of fast-tracking drug couriers
through customs.

There are plenty of GTA mobsters who aren't connected with the
Rizzutos, experts say. York Region is home to at least a dozen
fugitives wanted by Italy on anti-Mafia charges, according to York
Region police.

Some of the GTA mobsters who aren't connected to the Rizzutos are
considered members of the Mafia group called the 'Ndranghetta, whose
origins are in southern Italy, while others are related to the
Cuntrera-Caruana crime group, which has roots in Sicily.

Nicaso says local mobsters may be troubled to see that authorities
have hit the Rizzuto organization with gangsterism charges, which
bring mandatory prison time for crimes committed in aid of a criminal
enterprise. In the past, they've been levelled only against native
Manitoba Warriors and outlaw bikers.

He said he expects a further wave of police arrests, followed by a
further series of underworld adjustments, both in Montreal and the
GTA.

"This can be considered 'Colisee One,'" Nicaso says, referring to the
series of Godfather movies.

"It's a neverending-story."