Pickering Bodies are suspected to be that of Indo-Canadians

Bodies of two men were found in the trunk of an abandoned car in rural Pickering, killings with all the hallmarks of a gang hit. The bodies are suspected to be that of Indo-Canadians as a car full of Indo-Canadian men from Brampton paid a visit to the crime scene with one of the men saying in accented English that his brother had been missing for a while and he suspected one of the dead to be the missing man.
"Our brother, he's been missing for the last two days, right?" said an Indo-Canadian man, who didn't identify himself.
It's not clear yet if the family members are related to either of the dead men, Durham Det. Mitch Martin said.
"The act doesn't appear to be random to me," Martin said, trying to calm fears of residents in the rural area.
But although it appears the two victims were targeted, Martin didn't elaborate on the killings, saying the investigation is in its early stages.
"We're looking for suspects, we don't have anybody in custody," he said.
Detectives wouldn't confirm or deny reports the victims were shot and beaten, or comment on a motive in the region's second and third murders of the year
But there was "trauma on both bodies," Martin said.
The bodies, one of a Peel resident and the other whose hometown hasn't been revealed, were found around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after an area resident reported a vehicle parked on Rosebank Rd., just north of Taunton Rd.
The Ottawa Valley plays a role in the investigation, sources said.
Other GTA police and the OPP are assisting in the investigation, Durham Police spokesman Dave Selby said. Traces of blood were found next to the car. Martin wouldn't confirm reports that the car was a rental from Toronto. Autopsies are expected to be performed today on the bodies that were kept in the vehicle as it was taken away for forensic examination.

Read more...

One man was killed but another survived after shooting happened outside a restaurant at 1176 Kennedy Rd, just north of Lawrence Ave.

One man was killed but another survived after shooting happened outside a restaurant at 1176 Kennedy Rd, just north of Lawrence Ave.Emergency crews who rushed to the scene found only one victim, believed to be a man in his 20s. Despite frantic efforts to save his life, he died in ambulance.About 20 minutes later, police allege that a second victim walked into Scarborough General Hospital. He had allegedly been shot in the groin.Officers have said the two shootings are linked. Toronto Police are investigating the homicide, the city's 10th of the year. While witnesses reported seeing suspects running south on Kennedy after the attack, there's no word on a description.

Read more...

Random shooting death of Bailey Zaveda has left the city shaken

Random shooting death of Bailey Zaveda has left the city shaken and has inevitably raised the same questions that have haunted Toronto's streets for decades.Is there any way to make sense of random shootings and is there anything we can learn from these types of events to prevent them from happening in the future? "That is the $60,000 question, which is what I am trying to work on now," said Rosemary Gartner, a professor with the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto. Gartner has been studying homicides since 1976 and has spent about 20 years compiling a database detailing homicides in the city of Toronto between 1900 and 2003. "I don't know that in Toronto - over the last 20 to 30 years - there has been a trend towards more homicides in public places rather than in private ones," like domestic murders in people's homes, she said. "It used to be the other way around," she said. "But at the same time, as it has been going down it has changed in its character."The type of guns being used in homicides has changed as well. Statistics Canada reports that in 2007 handguns were used in about two-thirds of all homicides, up from about 25 per cent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The majority of those shootings took place in urban centres, according to the report. "The numbers of those kind of shootings are definitely higher than they were ten years ago, in Canada," said Robert M. Gordon, director of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. However, the majority are rooted in disputes amongst individuals involved in the drug trade, he said. "In any normal business context if you had a dispute with a supplier or a retailer you wouldn't go around shooting them. You would use lawyers, which are of course slower and more expensive and less efficient." The actual chances of becoming a shooting victim as an innocent bystander have not been predicted with any kind of statistical reliability, but the chances are slight, he said. Unfortunately most handguns are extraordinarily inaccurate weapons, so once the bullets actually start flying there is a good chance someone innocent will get caught in the crossfire. There are clear messages being sent by the individuals who decide to open fire in public, said Gordon. The first being 'don't mess with us, or this is going to happen to you,' and second being 'we can do whatever we want to do with impunity,' he said. "The implication being if you get in our way we will pop you off as well." The shootings fill the public with fear and shake the public faith in the criminal justice system, resulting in "a slow, grinding process of demoralization," he said. Typically, after these types of shootings there is a call for stronger laws, "which politician's love because passing laws is very cheap," said Gordon.
"It feeds into that frenzy of law and order, which can lead to bad decisions on the part of politicians and policy makers. That is what concerns me more than addressing or being scared of being hit by a stray bullet."

Read more...

Dayne Rose bullet-riddled body found on a busy Toronto highway

Homicide detectives investigating the slaying of a man who was shot and ejected from a luxury car along a busy stretch of Highway 401 have plenty of eyewitness reports of the incident but few strong leads, a police source said Wednesday.Dayne Rose, born in Canada but with ties to Jamaica, was known to Toronto police but had only minor brushes with the law and had no criminal record, a police source told The Globe and Mail.bullet-riddled body found on a busy Toronto highway is that of a 29-year-old man with no criminal record, a police source says.He would have turned 30 next month."He's not a drug dealer, he's not a gang-banger, he's not on the radar," the source told the newspaper.Police were investigating whether Rose was shot before being pushed out of a moving car on Highway 401 in Toronto about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday or whether he jumped out and then was shot, The Toronto Star reported.
Police were unsure if striking the road contributed to Rose's death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday night.Police Tuesday seized a luxury Lexus believed connected to the incident and took several people into custody for questioning, but they were later released, The police working theory is that there were three people in the car – Mr. Rose, another man and a woman. But while one witness has described seeing Mr. Rose being shot by a woman who was seated in the back seat on the passenger side, others have disputed that account.
The Lexus is registered to a Mississauga woman whom Mr. Rose knew, and who has been interviewed by police. But she was not in the car at the time and the identity of his two companions remains moot.
“Wouldn't we love to know,” the source said, adding that police are still anxious to speak to anyone else who saw the incident.Tuesday's killing, shortly before rush hour on one of the country's busiest highways, backed up traffic for many kilometres, frustrating tens of thousands of commuters before the road was fully reopened early Wednesday.
The death, Toronto's 49th homicide this year, drew a spirited response from Mayor David Miller, who has long urged the federal government to impose an outright ban on handguns.“People who commit violence in Toronto are going to go to jail and they need to know that. But the sad fact is it is much too easy for them to get guns,” he said.
“That's why this city council is so determined to fight to get handguns off the street.”Premier Dalton McGuinty concurred, saying he too is weary of the violence and that no one should have access to handguns except police.“Handguns are the weapon of choice for the criminal element,” he said. Traffic on Highway 401 returned to near-normal Wednesday as police continued searching for forensic evidence. Cars were at a standstill during the afternoon rush hour and into the evening Tuesday.

Read more...

Omid Tahvili, the convicted drug dealer who escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in November with the aid of a guard, was killed last week ?

Omid Tahvili, the convicted drug dealer who escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in November with the aid of a guard, was killed last week after he was shot five times in the head, chest, arm and legs. The tipster said he is storing the body in a fridge and that he would hold onto it until the RCMP offer him a suitable reward. "I can't keep the body around no more longer, because the body stinks right now," the caller told the North Shore News."If they don't make that deal with me, I'm just going to burn the body and get rid of it."He would not reveal how he came to be in possession of the corpse, or any information about who shot Tahvili.
Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Scott Baker confirmed that the tipster had called him twice and offered to return the body in return for a large payment. Police are taking the call seriously, but Baker said there isn't any proof that Tahvili is either dead or alive. He said the caller refused to send RCMP pictures of the body, nor would he give his name or contact information.Although caller ID showed a Toronto number, Baker said that police have not been able to trace it, and they can't be sure that the tipster is actually in Ontario. The caller told the North Shore News that he was "somewhere back east."The caller accurately described Tahvili's tattoos, but police said those descriptions have been widely circulated in the public.
"He could very well know Tahvili, and Tahvili could be in on the whole thing," Baker said. "It sounds pretty hokey.... It sure is possible, but is it likely? I don't know."In August, Crown prosecutor Wendy Dawson revealed in court during the sentencing hearing of former jail guard Edwin Ticne, who helped Tahvili escape in return for $50,000, that the gangster had called Coquitlam RCMP to say he was in Toronto and wanted to make a deal for his return to B.C. Before being sentenced in absentia in January, Tahvili phoned his lawyer and promised to turn himself in if the judge let him off with time served. But that deal was refused, and Tahvili was ordered to serve six more years in jail for the kidnapping and torture of a Surrey man in 2005.The judge ruled that Tahvili was the mastermind behind the abduction plot, in which the victim was kidnapped at gunpoint, blindfolded, assaulted and taken to a secret location, which police believed was Tahvili's business, Platinum Touch in Vancouver. During that sentencing, the court heard that Tahvili and his business shipped at least $654,000 in drug money during a one-month period when they were under police surveillance

Read more...

Allegedly Yong Long Ye, who is due in court Sept. 11 to fix a trial date, arranged cocaine to be transported from Los Angeles to Ontario,

Police pored over the clan's Canada Revenue Agency tax returns. They checked land title records and B.C. Assessments. They monitored large lump sums of cash plunked down on mortgages and tracked from whose bank accounts the withdrawals were made.
They clandestinely listened to phone calls as Ye and others not only allegedly discussed their cross-border cocaine transactions, but how they were going to transport huge sums of money - some of which, police allege, were used to purchase millions of dollars of real estate in several names and two provinces.
Investigators contacted the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the government agency charged with tracking money-laundering and terrorism-related transactions through Canada's banking system.Last November, confident they had untangled the complicated financial web of an international crime syndicate, they secretly went to B.C. Supreme Court and requested an ex parte order to freeze nine properties in B.C. and Ontario believed to have been bought with Ye's drug money.Details of the extraordinary investigation are contained in a 110-page affidavit by Insp. Mike Ryan, in charge of CFSEU's proceeds-of-crime team.
While the affidavit was sealed in Supreme Court, it was later filed as an exhibit in the Federal Court of Canada as part of the government's defence against allegations by the Hells Angels that police were colluding with the revenue agency to investigate the biker gang.Ryan said in his Federal Court covering affidavit that the Ye case shows what police can accomplish when they have the ability to review tax records under special circumstances."If the tax information is supportive of an accumulation of wealth that is not accounted for through legitimate income sources, it is vital evidence in all proceeds of crime and offence related property investigations," Ryan said."The information obtained through those orders was vital to the restraint of assets believed to be the proceeds of crime of Yong Long Ye and his family resulting from Mr. Ye's involvement in the matters for which he was arrested: namely conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to produce and export methamphetamine and participation in a criminal organization."
Ye and several associates were arrested and charged nine days after Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm granted the order freezing the Ye-linked houses and condos in Metro Vancouver and Toronto.Several law enforcement agencies attended a news conference Dec. 12 to announce they had cracked the biggest drug syndicate in B.C. history after a massive 14-month investigation dubbed Operation E-Paragon.
Ye's arrest as the leader of the gang was like "cutting the head off the snake," Vancouver police Insp. Dean Robinson said at the time.
Drugs worth $168 million on the street had been seized, including more than 640 kilograms of cocaine, 111 kilograms of methamphetamines, 83 kilograms of ecstasy, 26 units of heroin and 7,832 pounds of marijuana. Several guns had also been found.
Investigators allege Ye, who is due in court Sept. 11 to fix a trial date, arranged cocaine to be transported from Los Angeles to Ontario, with the huge profits sent back to Vancouver from Toronto with couriers traveling on Westjet flights.
"Between July 10, 2007 and November 16, 2007, over $4.6 million in Canadian dollars was transported in this way," Ryan said in his affidavit.
He also explained how police investigated the cash shipments without alerting the criminals involved by secretly examining the couriers' bags before they were picked up in Vancouver."On all occasions, when the luggage was opened, large amounts of Canadian cash in vacuum sealed packages were found. These packages were frequently labeled specifying the amount of cash each package contained. Each occasion the general warrant was executed, the cash bundles were photographed, re-packed in the luggage and claimed at the carousel by the courier identified on the luggage tag," Ryan's affidavit said. He said the shipments were not seized "as to do so would have compromised the integrity of the drug investigation."
Police watched as the couriers were picked up by Ye himself, his wife Zhang or, at least once, Zhang's mother Cui Lian Lu."Police surveillance confirmed that on all but one occasion they were driven to 3418 Deering Island Place in Vancouver," the court documents say. "These currency couriers remained at the Deering Island address for a few hours, or just overnight, and were driven back to Vancouver International Airport where they took return flights to Toronto."
Coded phone conversations allegedly referring to the couriered cash are highlighted in the documents. On July 10, 2007, Ye's Toronto contact told him "dinner would be arriving at 11 o'clock." Ye then asked "how much rent money did the master return?" and the contact replied "28, two and that it would be tomorrow breakfast."

Ryan said Ye's contact was telling him "that $280,000 would be arriving twice with one courier at dinner time and one courier at breakfast time."

He said the time references match up with two couriered deliveries watched on July 10 and 11 by investigators.

Some of the couriers' luggage tags for the suspect bags were found in the trash outside of Ye's house during several unscheduled police garbage pick-ups, the court documents say.

It was this cash, police allege, that Ye used to purchase seven Lower Mainland homes as well as two Metro Toronto penthouses in the last few years.

Several of the properties were bought in the names of family members of Ye and his wife, forcing a careful analysis by investigators to track the transactions back to Ye.

Humble orgins

Ye's origins in Canada were humble.

According to the court documents, the 41-year-old Chinese national arrived at Vancouver Airport for the first time on October 7, 1989, with his mom, Li Juan Ye, to immigrate.

"Neither reported possessing any money upon entry, nor money to be transferred from China to Canada," Ryan notes. "They were both sponsored by Mon Yee Kuang, Yong Ye's sister who resided in Vancouver."

Two years later, Ye's spouse to be, Jean Zhang, landed at the same airport to immigrate, along with her dad Yim-Fen Cheung.

"Neither reported possessing any money upon entry, nor money to be transferred from China to Canada," Ryan said again. "However, in a prior immigration application, Yim-Fen Cheung stated that he would have $10,000 Hong Kong dollars and jewelry when he arrived in Canada."

By November 1993, Ye's would-be mother-in-law, Cui Lian Lu, arrived for immigration.

"A condition of her landing was that she marry her sponsor, Yim-Fen Cheung, within 90 days," Ryan said.

It was this little group, eventually united by family relationships, that would soon amass a suspicious fortune in real estate and luxury cars, including a Porsche Cayenne often seen picking up the cash couriers at Vancouver airport.

Their extravagant lifestyle, police allege, did not match the modest incomes reported to the CRA.

From 2000 to 2006, Ye, Zhang, their parents, as well as Ye's sister Mon Ye Kuang and her husband She Ho Kuang, reported a total income of $872,947, with a larger disposable income of $960,447, the court documents say.

"Yong Ye has since 2000, and with his common-law wife Jean Shu Zhen Zhang since 2003, acquired substantial assets, the value of which exceeds their combined legitimate ability to purchase those assets," Ryan said.

"The investigation has demonstrated Yong Ye's use of family members and associates ... into whose names, real property and debt have been registered, thereby ensuring that his wealth, derived from the drug business, is not immediately attributable to him personally, reducing the likelihood of detection by authorities."

But the documents show the authorities made extraordinary efforts to track Ye's fortune and show his tentacles extend to these properties:

- 4747 Killarney Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye's mother-in-law, Cui Lian Lu.

- 1505-8831 Lansdowne Road in Richmond, owned by Ye.

- 3306 Parker Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye associate Hui Rong (Cappuccino) Yao.

- 3116 East 18th Avenue in Vancouver, owned by Ye's mother, Li Juan Ye.

- 7162 Stirling Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye's brother-in-law She Ho Kuang.

- 5088 Calder Court in Richmond, owned by Ye's father-in-law Yim-Fen Cheung.

- 3418 Deering Island Place in Vancouver, owned by Ye's wife Jean Shu Zhen Zhang.

- Penthouse 103, 8 Lee Centre Drive in Scarborough, Ont., owned by Ye and Zhang.

- Upper Penthouse 10, 62 Suncrest Boulevard in Markham, Ont., owned by Ye's sister Mon Yee Kuang.

Police were able to determine that mortgages on these properties were often paid off without explanation, that payments sometimes came from accounts linked to Ye even when the houses were in other names and that Ye would refer to "his" properties in phone conversations, even when the houses officially belonged to relatives.

"Yong Ye's reported income and the reported income of members of his family in whose names the properties are registered, as provided to the Canada Revenue Agency, are insufficient to support the purchase and maintenance of the debt associated to these properties," Ryan says.

At one point last year, Ye's mom became concerned when he said he wanted to sell the east Vancouver house listed under her name, according to the documents.

In a bugged call on May 9, 2007, Ye and a woman police believe is his mom discussed her concerns about giving him power of attorney so he could borrow against her house or sell it.

"Another unknown female came to the phone and said that Ye's mother was asking what protection she would have after signing the power of attorney and Ye said: 'What is the meaning of this? This house is mine. I don't understand.'"

Ye's aunt later said in another intercepted conversation that "his mother is worried that she won't have a house to live in. Ye said everything belongs to him and that he didn't mean to not take care of her," the court documents said.
One of the suspicious house purchases took place on June 26, 2007, when Ye's father-in-law bought the property at 5088 Calder Court in Richmond for $960,000 even though his reported income as a "construction worker" would not have supported a million-dollar home, police say.
Ryan pointed to a series of intercepted Ye calls, in which he appeared to be making all the arrangements for the transaction with the real estate agent.
At one point, Ye complained about the price "said he was buying a house at 960,000 when he only offered 950,000," Ryan's affidavit said.
In another call, Ye's wife appeared to be planning to put $198,000 in her dad's account for the house purchase. A month after the Calder Court house was purchased, Ye's father-in-law plunked down another $200,000 cash on the mortgage.
At one point last September on the police wiretap, Ye's wife allegedly asked an unknown man for false payroll cheques for her husband - each for $4,000.
"We won't cash them," Zhang said. "We just need them to fax over to the bank. When the bank has a copy of them, then we return the cheques to you. .... The cheques have to have the company's name on them. So it is the cheques you use for the payroll."Those named in the affidavit clearly seemed concerned about raising suspicions if too much money was deposited in certain accounts in a short period of time.
One caller told Ye's wife that she would split the funds into separate cheques "so the amount is not too large."And she said: "If you write these three ones under your mother's name, then the money can be taken right away. I don't want to focus just on your name, since if I need to explain it, I won't be able."
The documents cited intercepted phone conversations last summer showing that Ye was willing to take property in exchange for drug debts.
In one call, Ye gave instructions to a Toronto contact to "determine if a male person they referred to as 'Tall Guy' would relinquish a 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot residence to settle a $60,000 debt owed to Ye," Ryan said, adding that the contact said "Tall Guy" had agreed to list the property for $470,000.
"Ye said he would pretend to give "Tall Guy" "$410,000 even," the documents said, noting Ye later learned "Tall Guy" didn't have enough equity to make the bogus sale worthwhile.Ryan said in his affidavit that he expected proceeds-of-crime charges would eventually be laid, in addition to the criminal charges Yong and associates already face in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
"I believe that upon completion of the financial investigation conducted by the CFSEU-B.C. Proceeds of Crime Team, reports will be prepared and will be forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada recommending charges against Yong Long Ye, his family members and a number of other persons."

Read more...

Giuseppe Coluccio was arrested Thursday outside the luxury lakeside apartment building where he has been living in Toronto

Giuseppe Coluccio, 42, was arrested Thursday outside the luxury lakeside apartment building where he has been living in Toronto, ending two years as a fugitive, said prosecutor Nicola Gratteri.
Coluccio has been on the lam since 2005 when he fled a trial alleging he and his brother ran a mob organization that controlled maritime traffic along a 60-kilometer (nearly 40-mile) stretch of the Calabrian coast. His brother Salvatore Coluccio, 41, also is being sought.
«This is a very important arrest because it shows the connection between the 'ndrangheta in Calabria and in Canada,» Gratteri said in a telephone interview.
The Reggio Calabria-based prosecutor said the Canadian branch of the 'ndrangheta has been operating for more than 50 years and is heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Some investigators say the 'ndrangheta is now more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia, and is increasingly spreading its influence abroad.
Coluccio faces an extradition hearing within three days, Gratteri said.
In all, 28 people have been charged in the trial, which has resulted to date in 20 convictions with sentences ranging from 16 to 18 years in jail, Gratteri said.

Read more...

Toronto gangland three young men were killed by gunshots

Police in Toronto's west end encountered a gruesome murder scene this morning. As of this writing there is still no official announcement of the cause of the deaths from Toronto police, but media reports confirm three young men were killed by gunshots.
The police found three people shot dead in a vehicle located at Valermo and Lunness roads at 3:40 a.m. They haven't released the genders or ages of the victims, or even how they died. Police said all three suffered "from trauma" and that all three had been pronounced dead. But Toronto radio stations reported that sources with Emergency Medical Services in the city said the three died from gunshot wounds.
It's almost a sure bet these deaths are drug and gang related -- as are almost all the gun killings in major urban centres in Canada.

Read more...

MS-13 arrests, which resulted from a total of 22 early-morning search warrants executed in the three areas of the GTA, obtained cocaine, firearms

In an effort to crack down on a gang from gaining traction in the Greater Toronto Area, a co-ordinated effort between police forces in Toronto, York Region and Peel Region has resulted in 21 arrests.More than 20 people alleged to be a part of a growing South American street gang, are facing drugs and weapons charges following a series of police raids across the GTA today, including four in Mississauga.
Toronto police headed the large probe, which included raids on homes in Mississauga's City Centre area.So far, 21 people have been arrested. The names of those charged and other details are expected to be released tomorrow morning.
During the spring of 2008, investigators from the Integrated Gun & Gang Task Force, which includes officers from Peel, looked into the distribution of controlled drugs, firearms, and acts of violence surrounding a group of men in the northwest area of Toronto and surrounding region. As a result, investigators identified numerous people and addresses allegedly used to facilitate the distribution of illicit drugs and weapons, according to Toronto Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr. Some of the persons identified are believed to be members of the organized criminal street gang known as MS 13The violent gang is composed mostly of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and people from other Central and South American countries.
The gang has moved beyond its Salvadoran and American origins and now can be found in other nations, including Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Spain, Great Britain and Germany. Police say the gang's criminal activities have included murder, drug smuggling and sales, black market gun sales, human trafficking, theft and assaults.Investigators have seized large quantities of cocaine, firearms and other prohibited weapons and a significant amount of cash related to proceeds of crime, in the GTA probe. The arrests, which resulted from a total of 22 early-morning search warrants executed in the three areas of the GTA, obtained cocaine, firearms and cash related to proceeds of crime, police said. In Toronto, the searches were focused in the northwest portion of the city. The investigation focused on an international gang, MS-13, with ties to the United States and South America.Police made the announcement in a brief press conference Wednesday, June 4, afternoon at police headquarters.

Read more...

Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos

Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos, 45 stumbled into the halfway house late last night with gunshot wounds to either the back or stomach, said Const. Wayne Patterson.
Peel Regional Police received a call around 10 p.m. with a report that someone had been shot at St. Leonard’s Place, a transition house for both homeless men with serious mental illnesses and ex-offenders.
“We do know what he had been in prison for but at this time we need to revisit his past as we investigate,” said Patterson.
Alevizos was sentenced in a Newmarket court to three years in prison last February for his role in a drug conspiracy, the last of 32 co- accused to be sentenced — without a single trial held.
Alevizos was part of a large police investigation that hampered the expansion of the Montreal Mafia into Ontario, shut down one of the largest Ecstasy vendors in Canada and sparked the recent arrests of some of the biggest names in crime.
In an interview last year with the National Post, Alevizos dismissed suggestions he stole any cash and said that he was only afraid of only two things in life: God and his mother.
He was once described by a witness as the "biggest man I've ever seen" and by police as a 6-foot-6 male weighing 460 pounds earning him the nickname “Big Gus.”
One of Alevizos' closest friends, Gaetano Panepinto, was tight with outlaw motorcycle gang members, mafiosi, and high volume drug dealers.
He signed on early with the Rizzuto organization, the powerful Montreal-based Mafia family, when it started moving into Ontario, which gave him tremendous influence in the underworld.
Police do not have any suspects and are asking anyone who may have witnessed the shooting to come forward.
Alevizos had a pulse when police arrived but his vital signs soon disappeared, police said. He was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Alivezos was an all-star for the Guelph Gryphons university football team in the late 1980s. He also tried out for the Toronto Argonauts, in a brief career in the Canadian Football League.

Read more...

Mr. Mao was standing on the street stacking oranges when he was killed.

No arrests have been made, and the only solid lead disclosed by police involves two black men seen fleeing the scene in a small silver car.
The pair is thought to have either witnessed the shooting or to have been the intended targets.
At the time, 6:30 p.m., the street was packed with shoppers and homeward-bound residents, several of whom gave statements to police.
But after the first day of the investigation the flow of information swiftly dried up, much to the homicide squad's dismay.
Now witnesses appear to be responding to a fresh appeal for assistance. Along with at least two anonymous Crime Stoppers tips, four people stepped forward yesterday and will be interviewed, Det. Gray said.
Hours of closed-circuit surveillance tape are also being scrutinized.
Tomorrow evening on Gerrard Street, meanwhile, at the exact time and place of Mr. Mao's death, a Chinese-language flyer will be handed out seeking further help.
Later in the evening, Mr. Mao's family will hold a ritual at the site of his death, stemming from the belief that a soul taken by such violence could remain in a sort of limbo.
At around 9 p.m., a monk will bring to the crime scene a piece of Mr. Mao's clothing that will be used to summon his soul to the Wing Sung Funeral Chapel on Spadina Avenue, where his body has been laid out in preparation for his funeral Friday.
A recent arrival to Canada and the father of two young adults, Mr. Mao was standing on the street stacking oranges when he was killed.
His death struck a public nerve, marking the second gun killing of a bystander in Toronto in under a week: A shooting on Yonge Street in the early morning of Jan. 12 claimed the life of 42-year-old John O'Keefe as he was walking home.
Det. Gray said she remained hopeful the killing will be solved but refused to speculate on what sparked the gunplay.
"It doesn't matter to me frankly, I can't imagine what motivation there might be," she said.
"There was some kind of argument between two groups, but I refuse to speak to motive because then it becomes like an excuse - and there's no excuse, right?"
Yesterday Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair moved to assuage public anxiety over the two deaths during questioning by the Police Services Board.
"It's important to keep these things in perspective," he said.
"There were three such events in all of 2007. So far this year there are two. It is not indicative of a trend. It is worrisome ... but I don't think it is proof that the city is unsafe."
Chief Blair said the federal government does not support his call for a firearms ban in Ontario, but that proposed federal legislation to introduce new offences, increase mandatory minimum sentences and reform bail conditions for gun offenders has "great promise."
He said that while police have made great strides in dismantling gangs and engaging the community, policing is only one aspect of the battle, which includes stemming the availability of firearms and streamlining the prosecution of offenders

Read more...