Canada wants to deport top Toronto mobster to Italy
The man named the “the top guy in Toronto” for one of the world’s most powerful crime groups is asking a Canadian court to stop Ottawa’s plan to deport him.
Vincenzo "Jimmy" DeMaria, 63, has lived in Canada since he was an infant but never became a Canadian citizen; after a recent declaration he is a senior member of the Mafia and involved in transnational crime, he was ordered back to Italy.
The Immigration and Refugee Board issued a deportation order against him late last month after lengthy hearings. The IRB accepted police evidence that DeMaria was a senior boss in Canada of the ’Ndrangheta — the proper name of the Mafia formed in Italy’s region of Calabra — who engaged in money laundering or other proceeds of crime violations.
The focus of a recent National Post investigation into his past and the desperate measures authorities turned to do to prove his position in the underworld, he is now asking the Federal Court of Canada to intervene and review the IRB’s decision.
His appeal was not surprising as DeMaria has a long — and successful — history of turning to the courts in well-resourced legal campaigns to help him in a lengthy cat-and-mouse chase with authorities.
DeMaria was convicted of second-degree murder in 1982 for shooting a man who refused to pay him back loan money.
The evidence clearly shows that Mr. DeMaria is a member of the ’Ndrangheta in Toronto and that he
After his release on parole for that conviction, police say he forged a prominent role within Toronto’s well-entrenched ’Ndrangheta as the head of a mob clan with a seat on the mob’s “board of control” — a small group of bosses with a hand in criminal affairs in the province at the most senior level.
Several police witnesses from various forces, including the RCMP, told the IRB their version of DeMaria’s colourful life, describing him as the mob’s “top guy in Toronto” and a man at the centre of corruption, violence, gambling and suspicious money.
Despite that testimony, police have not been able to successfully bring any new criminal charges against him, despite repeated investigations. Instead, the government turned to the fact that DeMaria never became a Canadian citizen. Non-citizens found to engage in serious, organized or transnational crime can be subject to deportation.
Vincenzo “Jimmy” DeMaria sits in the back of a police cruiser after being arrested in Toronto, Monday April 20, 2009.
DeMaria denies being in the Mafia or involved in organized crime.
He said the seemingly suspicious money tracked by government accountants was mostly money from customers of the payday loan and financial services businesses he and his family run.
“Europol considers the ’Ndrangheta as one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in the world,” the IRB’s Dubé wrote in his decision.
“The organization’s activities are carried out in impenetrable secrecy by independent families that are governed by extremely strict internal rules, that are closed to external influences, showing excellent entrepreneurial capabilities in both economic and financial crimes, of which all of the profits are skillfully reinvested using sophisticated money laundering techniques.
Europol considers the ’Ndrangheta as one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in the world
“The panel does not doubt that the ’Ndrangheta is present in Toronto.” Further, Dubé wrote: “The evidence clearly shows that Mr. DeMaria is a member of the ’Ndrangheta in Toronto and that he holds a high-ranking position within it.”
In a court filing seeking judicial review, DeMaria’s lawyers claim the IRB failed to observe a principal of natural justice and procedural fairness; that the IRB’s Dubé acted beyond his jurisdiction; and based his decision on erroneous findings made in a perverse or capricious manner; and failed to consider the totality of the evidence.
His lead lawyer on the appeal did not reply to a request for comment prior to deadline.
The court has not yet decided whether to hear his appeal.
http://nationalpost.com/news/man-pegged-as-torontos-top-guy-in-powerful-global-mafia-starts-new-court-battle-against-deportation-to-italy
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