COPS SEIZE HIGH-PRICED ASSETS

Proceeds-of-crime cops have started seizing assets, including suitcases of
cash, from alleged members of the Caruana-Cuntrera mafia family, and they
expect to make more high-priced seizures in coming days.

Insp. Gary Nichols, head of the Toronto proceeds of crime section, said
yesterday 30 kilos of money -- cops haven't been able to count it all yet
- -- have been snapped up in the wake of Wednesday's arrest of reputed Mafia
boss Alphonso Caruana, 52, of Woodbridge, and 11 others on drug charges.

"We've made some not bad seizures in the last few days ... we have assets
in hand aside from the currency and jewelry (from Wednesday)," Nichols said.

He said some seizures included suitcases of cash.

His unit, which worked alongside the Combined Forces Special Enforcement
Unit for two years in Project Omerta, "anticipates others," too.

"Restraining orders should be forthcoming," he said, to prevent the
liquidation of assets not yet under police control.

His comments follow what RCMP Insp. Ben Soave called a severe blow to the
"largest drug smuggling and money laundering operation in the world."

Confidential FBI documents obtained by The Sun suggest the Caruana-Cuntrera
organization could be worth more than a billion dollars with business
interests in England, Switzerland, Venezuela, Aruba, Italy, and Canada.

Police sources here list night clubs, restaurants and strip malls among
their local assets.

Although Project Omerta, launched with information by Toronto Police,
hasn't uncovered any evidence of murder, Soave said in theory "anything is
possible."

Investigators have long believed the Sicilian Mafia was moving into the
Toronto area.

"There's a definite possibility ... in theory ... one of the reasons
(someone) knocked off (Johnny) Papalia," he said.

Long-time Ontario mob boss Papalia, 73, was murdered in Hamilton in May
1997. His lieutenant Carmen Barillaro was gunned down in the doorway of his
Niagara Falls home about two months later.

Sources said Project Omerta was launched after police unwittingly spotted
Alphonso Caruana while investigating Toronto mobster Enio Mora. Police
wanted to know who the then-unknown man was after seeing him.

Mora was murdered in September 1996, but sources stressed his death is not
tied to the investigation into the Caruana-Cuntrera family.

Soave said the three styles of Italian organized crime, the Mafia, the
'Ndrangheta and the Camorra, have been cooperating together and with
Colombian cartels.

"If they're all cooperating and you may have a weak link like Papalia, all
those options, all those theories, can be realistic, really, the theory of
the Sicilians trying to (entrench) themselves in the area," he said.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski