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Alfonso Caruana (born Sicily) was the Canadian head of the Caruana-Cuntrera mafia family.
He was sentenced in absentia on July 30, 1997 by the Palermo court of appeal to 21
years and 10 months for Mafia association, conspiracy to traffic narcotics and aggravated importing, possession and sale of large quantities of narcotics.
In 1998 he was arrested in Woodbridge, Ontario in an international police action called Project Omerta. At one time he claimed he was a simple car-wash attendant. According to police, he controlled the largest drug dealing network in the world. The officer in charge of the investigation, RCMP Chief Superintendent Ben Soave, said "If organized crime was a hockey game, Mr. Caruana would be [Wayne] Gretzky." Caruana pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import and traffic some 1,500 kilograms of cocaine.
In November, 2004 a Canadian court ordered that he be extradited to Italy. The decision is being appealed.
Bibliography
Bloodlines: Project Omerta and the fall of the Mafia's Royal Family by Antonio Nicaso (http://www.nicaso.com/pages/) and Lee Lamothe
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