The Toronto connection to the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy's most-wanted Mafia godfather
Although Messina Denaro and his Cosa Nostra have never been dominant players among Toronto organized crime groups, police records show the notorious Mafia boss's influence did reach the GTA.
By Peter EdwardsStaff Reporter
Mon., Jan. 16, 2023timer3 min. read
A murdered Mississauga mobster shows up on a police wiretap targeting top Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo (Diabolik) Messina Denaro, who was considered Italy's No. 1 fugitive before his arrest Monday after three decades on the run.
Messina Denaro was captured at a clinic in Palermo, Sicily, where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, Italian police said.
A young man when he went into hiding, Messina Denaro, now 60, was considered the top boss of Sicily's Cosa Nostra even while a fugitive. Over the years, he had ordered some of the nation's most heinous killings and hundreds of police officers had been tasked with tracking him down.
Although Messina Denaro and the Cosa Nostra have never been dominant players among Toronto organized crime groups, police records show his influence did reach the GTA.
While Messina Denaro was on the run in the early 2000s, Italian police intercepted a conversation regarding a drug deal between Mississauga mob figure Juan Ramon Fernandez Paz and a Sicilian mafioso working for Messina Denaro.
Fernandez, known as Joey Bravo, and his associate, Fernando Pimental, also formerly of Mississauga, were both shot dead in Sicily in April 2013.
In the intercepted conversation, Fernandez and an Italian mobster referred to as "Pietro" talk about paying Fernandez with drugs destined for Toronto.
In the conversation, Messina Denaro is referred to by his nickname of "Diabolik" — a reference to an Italian comic book anti-hero.
At one point in their talk, Fernandez becomes frustrated and calls another man a "cabbage."
The intercepted conversation refers to cash flow difficulties Fernandez had in paying for "the narcotic substance" in a deal involving mobsters from around Sicily.
One mobster tells Fernandez: "We invest this, you give me a kilo and I'm already selling it and making money and sorry! Ray, we both help each other, now Tuesday we can talk well, at least like this, you understand? Because we have to pay these people."
Pietro then asks Fernandez where to send a substance.
"Where should they go?" Pietro asks.
"In Toronto," Fernandez replies.
"Toronto?" Pietro repeats.
"Yes," Fernandez replies.
Pietro then grumbles about his troubles collecting debts.
"You see he didn't pay me for the pills, eh! He didn't give me the money," Pietro says.
"Pffff," Fernandez replies.
In June 2004, Fernandez, a Spanish national, was sentenced in Toronto to 12 years in prison for a half-dozen gangland charges, including conspiring to murder a 460-pound rival fitness club owner.
The sentencing came after Fernandez admitted guilt to a half-dozen underworld charges involving a murder plot, conspiring to traffic 1,000 kilos of cocaine with Montreal's Vito Rizzuto crime group and local Hells Angels, using a forged passport, possessing a counterfeit credit card and defrauding a bank.
Fernandez supported Rizzuto in his expansion from his Quebec base into the GTA in the early 2000s. The Rizzuto group encountered stiff resistance from well-established GTA underworld groups like the 'Ndrangheta — based out of Calabria, at the "toe" of Italy's boot — but were welcomed by others like Pat Musitano of Hamilton, who was murdered in 2020.
Fernandez, who lived in a Mississauga condominium while using the names Joe Bravo, Johnny Bravo and James Shaddock, was charged in police Project R.I.P., which began in 2000 after the murder of Gaetano Panepinto, 41.
Panepinto, who operated a casket and urn outlet on St. Clair Avenue West, was considered by police to be Rizzuto's Toronto manager.
In wiretaps, Fernandez refers to Rizzuto as "V," "the old man," and "my partner."
Rizzuto died of natural causes in December 2013.
Court heard that Fernandez has been deported to Spain twice.
Each time, he managed to slip back into the Toronto underworld.
With files from Daniel Renaud of La Presse and The Associated Press
Peter Edwards is a Toronto-based reporter primarily covering crime for the Star. Reach him via email: pedwards@thestar.ca