Mobster not among dead in Mexico

Daniele Ranieri initially rumoured to be killed and hung from a bridge Daniele Ranieri has been missing since early 2015.

For months, investigators wondered whether a Greater Toronto Area mobster was among a half-dozen men found hanging under bridges near the Mexican tourist resort of Los Cabos.

Others suspected he had faked his own death.

At least one of those theories has now been dashed after the federal government confirmed on Friday that Daniele Ranieri, who has been on the run for more than three years, was not among the men whose corpses were found hanging from three bridges in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur in December.

“No Canadian citizens were affected by this particular incident,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Krista Humick told the Star in an email.

Ranieri, 33, of Bolton is wanted by police for extortion and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

York Regional Police said in January 2015 they believed Ranieri had fled the country but they did not comment on where he had relocated.

Ranieri was named in December 2014 as a principal target in a multi-jurisdictional police investigation called Project Forza, an operation conducted by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a task force also involving the RCMP and OPP.

Authorities say he was connected to the international criminal organization of the late Vito Rizzuto of Montreal.

Mexican authorities did not comment on the identities of the men found hanging from the bridges.

Since December, there have been persistent rumours amongst sources familiar with the GTA underworld that Ranieri was one of the victims.

There were also unconfirmed reports that Ranieri faked his own death by getting associates to spread the story that he was one of the men found hanging from the bridges.

Drug gangs in Mexico often hang the bodies of their murdered victims in public to intimidate rivals but it is unusual for bodies to be seen near tourist areas.

Los Cabos police chief Juan Manuel Mayorga was also shot dead there in December.

Much of the current violence is blamed on the rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, now one of the country’s most powerful, and disputes between other criminal groups.

“In 2017, approximately 120 cases involving the death of a Canadian citizen were opened in Mexico,” Humick said. “Over three-quarters of these deaths were from natural causes. In the first six months of 2018 (Jan. 1 to June 30), 98 death cases were opened in Mexico. Of these, over 80 per cent were for natural deaths.”

A police officer familiar with Ranieri said the longtime criminal has plenty of contacts to provide him with the bogus documents necessary to travel internationally.

Police say Ranieri was handed the reins to run Rizzuto’s GTA operations after the April 2013 murder of Juan Ramon Fernandez, who lived in Mississauga under the name “Joey Bravo.”

Rizzuto reportedly died of natural causes in a Montreal hospital in December 2013.

By age 27, Ranieri had served three federal prison terms and also spent time in provincial jails for a series of offences that date back to 2002 and include uttering threats, robbery, pointing a firearm and assault with a weapon.

Ranieri’s name came up in wiretaps played in a Toronto court case in April, involving former police agent Carmine Guido and Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino of Bradford and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea of Toronto.