Police bust one-stop crime shop
Drugs, guns, bogus cash: Mafia, Asian gangsters united for co-operative venture
By: ADRIAN HUMPHREYS, National Post

HAMILTON - Smiling police chiefs from around southern Ontario stood behind a long table overflowing with seized contraband yesterday to announce the dismantling of a diverse organized crime network that linked traditional Mafia and Asian gangsters in a wide confederacy of crooks, drug dealers, counterfeiters and gunrunners.

The group formed a one-stop crime shop that was able to move a wide array of illicit goods -- including guns, drugs and expertly-crafted counterfeit $100 bills, police said.

"Project Bulldog uncovered a network of individuals who worked together as a criminal organization conducting illegal activities throughout southern Ontario, from Niagara Falls to Toronto and across Canada," said Detective Inspector Steve Clegg, commander of the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit, a joint team from 12 police agencies.

Along with the arrest of 20 people, officers seized $2.3-million in cash, 16 guns, an array of trendy synthetic drugs, large amounts of steroids, cocaine, bulk marijuana from an indoor/outdoor grow operation and $238,000 in counterfeit Canadian currency.

A large cabin cruiser, worth more than $130,000, was seized in Vancouver, and several luxury automobiles identified as the proceeds of crime were taken by police in southern Ontario. During raids on Wednesday, officers also seized computer equipment allegedly used to make counterfeit currency.

Det. Insp. Clegg said removing guns from the street was an important part of the investigation.

"Unlike consumable products such as drugs, crime guns [can] remain on the street forever, transferring from criminal hand to criminal hand. Anytime we remove one crime gun from the street it is significant and prevents many more serious offences."

The group reflects the new face of organized crime in Canada and highlights how people from diverse backgrounds are increasingly co-operating with each other, each offering an underworld expertise to further a larger criminal enterprise, police said.

One of the men arrested in the Niagara area is linked to the Rizzuto Mafia organization in Montreal and was involved in assisting the group in various financial transactions, according to a police source.

Vito Rizzuto, the alleged head of the Rizzuto crime family, is called the "Godfather of the Italian Mafia" in court documents unrelated to this case and is currently incarcerated in Quebec while he fights extradition to the United States, where he is under indictment for the murder of three New York mobsters.

Another man, arrested in Toronto, was involved with the Big Circle Boys, a storied syndicate of Asian crime groups, and allegedly offered an expertise in synthetic drugs, including GHB and Ecstasy, according to the source.

"They were certainly motivated to generate profit," Det. Insp. Clegg said. "They will work in unison together, these particular groups. As they extended their criminal enterprise, they grew to such an extent that their criminal activities expanded their boundaries."

Most of the men and women arrested are from the Toronto and Niagara areas, including two of the alleged ringleaders -- Aaron Charles England, 26, of St. Catharines, and Philip Ernest England, 25, of Toronto. Jesse Dornan, 29, and Kathryn Berezowski, 31, were arrested in Vancouver, and Cameron Stephen, 30, is from Dartmouth, N.S.

The investigation started in 2003, after an Ontario Provincial Police officer made a routine traffic stop on the Queen Elizabeth Highway in Niagara and noticed something suspicious. That information was passed along to officers specializing in organized crime and weapons investigations.

"This is a major win for the good guys," said Chief Brian Mullan of the Hamilton Police Service. He was joined by police chiefs from Halton region, Niagara region, Waterloo region, and a deputy chief from Toronto.