Authors: Lee Lamothe
The Sixth Family (57 page)
“They are very, very, very conservative people. Extremely conservative. Anytime there was any commotion or any attention, that was a bad thing. Things you wouldn’t think would be a problem were—if you saw them in a restaurant and called them out by name, that would be a problem. If you were drunk and loud in a bar and saw them and came over to them, that would be a problem. They are actually very boring people,” he said of the Sixth Family’s inner core.
MONTREAL, APRIL 2000The more it looked like the Hells Angels were winning the war for control of drug distribution in Quebec, the more the Sixth Family extended its hand in friendship to the gang. By 2000, they were working closely together, coordinating activities, prices and manpower and, in April of that year, senior Nomads and their closest associates were meeting with Vito’s son Nick, according to Kane. Normand Robitaille, a Nomad member and a favorite of Mom Boucher’s, was the gang’s main liaison with the mob. Kane would often stand guard outside their meetings. The interaction, apparently, did not need to be hidden: a meeting between Nick, Robitaille and other Nomads on April 10, 2000, was held in a Montreal restaurant’s bar; another, between Nick and Robitaille, on May 25, was in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kane told his handlers. From the Sixth Family’s end, Antonio “Tony” Mucci acted as something of a go-between with the bikers, Kane said. Mucci gained notoriety when, in 1974, he walked into the newsroom of
Le Devoir
, a Montreal newspaper, and shot crime reporter Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, who had been writing about mob activity. Charbonneau survived and continued to expose the Mafia’s activities and later became a popular politician.
Le Devoir
, a Montreal newspaper, and shot crime reporter Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, who had been writing about mob activity. Charbonneau survived and continued to expose the Mafia’s activities and later became a popular politician.
By late May, the meetings between the Sixth Family and Hells Angels bore more fruit. A cartel had been formed that set a uniform price for cocaine at all levels: at the bulk rate it was to be $50,000 per kilo, a huge jump from its price of $32,000 a few years earlier, and at the street level it was to be sold for $25 for a one-quarter gram. By mid-June, the bikers and other dealers who were left out of both the Consortium and
La Table
were complaining of the price-fixing. They were losing customers because of the price. The Consortium did not seem to care. They insisted that the price could not be lowered, no matter what.
La Table
were complaining of the price-fixing. They were losing customers because of the price. The Consortium did not seem to care. They insisted that the price could not be lowered, no matter what.
The mob’s relationship with the bikers was working so well they started talking about other cooperative ventures, such as a telemarketing scam that involved phoning Americans to inform them they had won a car in a lottery; all the victims had to do was pay the taxes. Those foolhardy enough to pay the money would only kick themselves, not the tires of a new car. Kane told his police handlers that he was promised a cut of the telephone scam just for standing watch over the organizational meetings. The scheme was expected to clear $1 million each week.
The alliance with the Hells Angels caused some ruffled feathers within the Mafia, just as it had for bikers who were left out of
La Table
. Salvatore Gervasi, for instance, was a big man, not only because of his 300-pound frame but because his father, Paolo Gervasi, was a mafioso with close ties to Vito. Paolo Gervasi also owned Cabaret Castel Tina, a Saint-Léonard strip club popular in the Montreal underworld. The elder Gervasi was believed to be a made man in Vito’s Mafia, or, as some in Montreal’s underworld say, he had “hot hands,” a reference to the burning picture of a saint that Mafia members hold in their hands during their induction ceremony. In the mid-1980s, Vito used Gervasi’s club as a base, making frequent phone calls from its office. A decade later, it remained a great place for conducting illicit business. Salvatore, 32, was using his father’s club as his base when he started into a criminal career.
La Table
. Salvatore Gervasi, for instance, was a big man, not only because of his 300-pound frame but because his father, Paolo Gervasi, was a mafioso with close ties to Vito. Paolo Gervasi also owned Cabaret Castel Tina, a Saint-Léonard strip club popular in the Montreal underworld. The elder Gervasi was believed to be a made man in Vito’s Mafia, or, as some in Montreal’s underworld say, he had “hot hands,” a reference to the burning picture of a saint that Mafia members hold in their hands during their induction ceremony. In the mid-1980s, Vito used Gervasi’s club as a base, making frequent phone calls from its office. A decade later, it remained a great place for conducting illicit business. Salvatore, 32, was using his father’s club as his base when he started into a criminal career.
“Salvatore used to hang around with the Rock Machine at the club. They wore their patches in the club and he furnished them, through his contacts, with narcotics,” said André Bouchard, the retired Montreal police commander. “It didn’t go over well with the Hells Angels because the Hells Angels were dealing directly with the Italians and the Italians weren’t supposed to be working with the Rock Machine.” After the Hells Angels complained to the Mafia leadership, Paolo Gervasi was told to keep his son in line. The warnings became graver but Salvatore’s relationships with the Rock Machine continued.
“The night of Salvatore’s murder, we found him in the trunk of a car. They parked the Porsche in front of his father’s home in Saint-Léonard. His father arrived and came crashing into the crime scene; we had to tackle him to keep him away from the trunk,” Bouchard said of the April 2000 murder of the young Gervasi.
“So the old man got pissed. He got really angry at the Italians when he found out that they killed his son and he said he was going to get rid of the club. The Italians offered to buy the club from him and he told them to go fuck themselves and he actually got up on a bulldozer and tore down his own club. It was his way of getting back at them. He built condominiums over top of the club, and a parking lot. That really pissed the Italians off and that was the first time they shot him.” Four months after his son’s murder, Gervasi was shot repeatedly as he walked out of a bank. The bullets were not meant to kill, unless the gunman was incompetent. The message, however, was ignored by Gervasi, a tough and hot-headed man who, in response, did the unimaginable—he went after Vito himself.
Police learned of the plot and, for weeks, watched two men who had been hired as hitmen. Investigators also felt it was necessary to warn the targets—Vito Rizzuto and Francesco Arcadi—according to an RCMP report. On July 13, 2001, police were watching the alleged assassins, who were driving in different vehicles and seemed to be converging on Vito’s Consenza headquarters. Fearing imminent gunplay, police stopped both vehicles and arrested two men. Although neither was armed, a search of one of their homes turned up an AK-47 automatic rifle, a .357-caliber magnum revolver, two 9mm pistols, two bulletproof vests, walkie-talkies and ammunition clips, police said. The tension was not over. On February 25, 2002, a passerby reported a suspicious object underneath a Jeep Grand Cherokee parked near the Consenza club. Police do not believe Vito was the target of that bomb plot, investigators say in internal documents; it was meant for Paolo Gervasi. The old mobster’s luck would not hold forever. He would later be killed, caught in a flurry of gunfire as he sat behind the wheel of his Jeep, but that final chapter for Gervasi was not yet played out when the Hells Angels and the Mafia were dividing their spoils.
On June 21, 2000, Robitaille had nothing but warm regards for the Sixth Family, gushing over Vito and Tony Mucci to Kane. Affairs between the two groups had been tense in the past, but, Robitaille told Kane, they were now one big team. Robitaille’s confidence stemmed from a meeting earlier that day at a restaurant in Laval, across the river from Montreal. Vito, Mucci and two of their associates met with Robitaille and two senior members of the Hells Angels Nomads.
“Norm told me that Vito was very nice and it wasn’t pretense,” Kane wrote in his diary of a conversation with Robitaille. “He told me that the Italians were strong and that if they were at war with them, the Hells Angels would have more trouble with them than they had with the Rock Machine.” On July 31, Kane again stood watch over a meeting between the organizations. The St-Laurent Boulevard restaurant was closed, so Kane could hear some of the chatter between Vito’s son, Nick, and Robitaille, he told his handlers. Nick said that 250 kilos of cocaine a week were moving through Montreal. At the new fixed rate, that meant $12.5 million in revenue each and every week.
Along with letting others do the more dangerous hands-on work of selling the drugs in Canada, the Sixth Family’s business model offered other benefits as well, investigators said.
“Vito never brings anything in that isn’t already sold. He wouldn’t bring in 5,000 kilos if he had only sold 1,200 kilos. The stuff is bought and paid for in advance and his job was to bring it to the Port of Montreal or the Port of Vancouver or the Port of Halifax—whatever port you want,” André Bouchard said. An experienced drug investigator agreed that Vito was a master of financing.
“Vito never put a dime of his own money into a deal. It was always somebody else’s money but he would end up with 60 percent of the product. He would take no risk but imprisonment—and that was remote with his level of insulation—and if the deal worked out he puts $50 to $60 million in his pocket, and if it didn’t work out, well, other people lose their money,” the officer said. “He is a very clever man.”
The bikers meant more to Vito than just men to push his dope. The nagging war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine drew the attention of the police and the public, making the bikers the number-two criminal organization but the number-one police target in Quebec and, later, in all of Canada.
“We didn’t really have enough time for the Italians. All the time, it was the bikers,” Bouchard said. This meant Vito went about his business largely unimpeded by city and provincial police. It had nothing to do with corruption, Bouchard said. It had to do with the in-your-face nature of the war waged by the rival biker gangs that left bodies in Montreal streets.
“The Italians played it very smart,” Bouchard said. “[Police] put all of their money and all of their eggs in one basket and said, ‘We have to attack the motorcycle gangs. They’re the ones making the most noise.’ If you throw enough money at something, you can get things done. My guys were working 16-hour days for years on the bikers.” There was little left over to keep an eye on the Sixth Family. During the biker war, Vito got an easy ride in Montreal.
“During that whole period, from 1992 to 2001, nobody touched the Italians. The police didn’t go after them. We didn’t check on them, we didn’t wiretap them. And any information that came in largely came from other police departments. They said, ‘Watch out for this guy, watch out for that guy.’ The Italians sat back, made all their money, bought up businesses, laundered their money. They became specialists in laundering money,” said Bouchard, who added he regrets not having the resources to focus on both organizations.
The sparks from the biker war soon grew too hot, even for the Sixth Family. Innocents were getting caught in the crossfire. First, in 1995, an 11-year-old boy was killed by shrapnel from a car bomb. Two years later, two Quebec prison guards were killed in a bid to destabilize the justice system. Then, in 2000, Montreal’s best-known crime reporter, Michel Auger, was shot in the parking lot of his newspaper, the popular tabloid
Le Journal de Montréal
. Despite six bullets in his back, Auger survived, but the outrage over the bold attack was palpable. Protest marches were held and demands made for tougher anti-gang legislation to tackle this criminal audacity. Politicians started talking about an American-style racketeering law. Suddenly, the biker war was putting a crimp in the Sixth Family’s quiet existence.
Le Journal de Montréal
. Despite six bullets in his back, Auger survived, but the outrage over the bold attack was palpable. Protest marches were held and demands made for tougher anti-gang legislation to tackle this criminal audacity. Politicians started talking about an American-style racketeering law. Suddenly, the biker war was putting a crimp in the Sixth Family’s quiet existence.
“Vito did sit down with Mom Boucher and say, ‘You have to stop these things, it’s hurting everyone,’” Bouchard said.
Even a crime boss as powerful and as aggressive as Mom Boucher needed to listen when Vito spoke. Vito could make peace as well as war.
MONTREAL, MARCH 2001In the early hours of March 28, 2001, authorities mustered some 2,000 police officers from numerous federal, provincial and municipal forces for what would be the largest police assault against organized crime in Canada. After years of investigation by police using a number of informants—one who had been murdered when his cover was blown, killed while still wearing his police wire, ghoulishly capturing his own death on tape, and another, Dany Kane, who committed suicide—a stack of arrest warrants had been assembled as part of a major police operation for targets in Quebec and Ontario. By the end of the day, 128 people had been arrested in what was called Operation Springtime 2001. All of them were bikers or biker associates. The members of the Hells Angels Nomads were pinched; their puppet gangs and assassins, their money launderers and drug runners were arrested.
The Hells Angels, by taking on society so openly and defiantly, had drawn all of the heat and now faced all of the repercussions.
Their partners, the Sixth Family, once again skipped over the carnage and went on with its business.
CHAPTER 34
TORONTO, JANUARY 2001Before the police toppled the most aggressive of the world’s Hells Angels, Vito Rizzuto and his Sixth Family kin were already planning a strategy to deal with the growing strength of the bikers. He recognized them as a threat at the same time he accepted them to sit at his table, likely with an eye to the old adage about keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer.
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