Police probe gangland links in Sherway Gardens attack
Organized crime power struggle behind recent violence, experts say
Police are probing whether a dissolving business partnership involving the Hells Angels in London, Ont., is behind two murder attempts in the GTA this month.
The latest shooting took place on Wednesday around 7:30 p.m. outside a coffee shop at Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke.
The shootings are the latest in a string of more than a dozen unsolved violent incidents this year in southern Ontario, including killings, explosions and arson.
Organized crime experts say the GTA is undergoing a power struggle that pits established criminals against younger, upand-coming ones — often from outside the province.
They’re fighting for control of drug networks and online gambling dollars, experts say, adding they don’t expect the fighting to end any time soon.
Several shots were fired in the Wednesday attack that left Mark Peretz of London seriously injured.
A second male victim suffered non-lifethreatening injuries.
The suspects, who were wearing black masks and all-black clothing, fled in a black SUV. The vehicle was later located, burned and abandoned, in Mississauga near Hurontario St. and Queen Elizabeth Way, police said.
Peretz is one of four men who served prison time for a botched Mob hit in 2004 that left an innocent mother-of-three paralyzed from the waist down.
In the other attack, a 35-year-old London, Ont., man was shot on Aug. 4 after he was approached by three men outside a Sunset Grill restaurant in an Oakville shopping plaza at Cornwall and Trafalgar Rds. around 9:30 a.m.
One male suspect was arrested after fleeing on foot and two other men are still being sought by police after fleeing in a black pickup truck.
A police source said a dissolving business partnership involving the London Hells Angels and online gambling has contributed to recent underworld tensions.
Peretz was sentenced to nine years in prison in April 2006 for his role in a drive-by shooting attack at a California Sandwich shop on Chesswood Dr. in Etobicoke on April 21, 2004, that left an innocent bystander, Louise Russo, paralyzed from the waist down.
Court heard that Peretz was the driver of a stolen van in the shooting and that the motive was an outstanding $240,000 online gambling debt owed to him.
Peretz took part in a controversial plea bargain that provided Russo with $2 million in restitution, along with Peter Scarcella of York Region, described by Corrections Canada as a Mob figure; Paris Christoforou, who was then sergeant-at-arms for the London Hells Angels; and gunman Antonio Borrelli.
Peretz, Scarcella and Christoforou each were sentenced to nine years in prison, while Borrelli received a 10- year term.
Court heard that the target of the botched murder attempt in 2004 was Michele Modica, who was in the restaurant at the time of the shooting but was not injured.
Court heard that Modica entered Canada on a forged passport and, with an associate, ran up online gambling debts of about $240,000 owed to Peretz.
Court heard that Christoforou was Peretz’s partner and head of collections.
Their associate, Raffaele Delle Donne, later became a police agent. He is quoted in the agreed statement of facts on the case as saying that Peretz and Christoforou met with Modica shortly before the shooting and left no doubt they expected payment in full.
“I didn’t see it, but I heard that uh Mark (Peretz) . . . and uh, his bodyguard (Christoforou) I guess . . . kicked (Modica) in the face and put a . . . gun in his mouth,” Delle Donne is reported as saying.