Nicaso, Antonio and Lamothe, Lee. Global Mafia: The New World Order of Organized Crime. Toronto: Macmillan Canada, 1995. 203 pages.

These two Canadian reporters take a look at organized crime in Canada. In recent years Canada has noticed an upsurge in activity, perhaps because of its unguarded border, loose customs restrictions, nonexistent or weak anti-racketeering and money-laundering laws, and soft sentencing. "Canada has been described, after Sofia, Bulgaria, as the most active center of Eastern European mafia activity outside of Russia.... Canada operates as a free-for-all zone, a kind of underworld laboratory where groups of various nationalities plan conspiracies and work, if not together, then, with a few exceptions, in harmony." (page 23)

About half of this book provides a "big picture" overview of Sicilian, Calabrian, American, and Russian mob activity, Chinese and Vietnamese gangs, Triads and Yakuza, bikers, and Colombian cartels. The introduction begins by discussing the myth that the American mob, at its 1957 Apalachin meeting, decided to stay away from drugs. This theory was presumed by law enforcement for years and ended up in the movie "The Godfather," but it was based on a 180-degree misreading of the evidence. The other half of this book is less valuable, as it narrates some big Canadian busts in police-reporter style. It's slightly entertaining, but doesn't illuminate the topic at hand; by now we already agree that mobsters are bad guys and the RCMP are good guys.
ISBN 0-7715-7311-1

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page