Buffalo mob may have hand in Ontario killing
New York state mobsters are backing one Canadian faction over another, sources say
The murder of Hamilton real estate agent Al Iavarone at his home last week suggests that the New York state mob still has considerable influence in the southern Ontario underworld, sources say.
“I don’t think anyone knows for certain how this plays out,” said Paul Manning, a former Hamilton undercover police officer who worked on organized crime investigations. “One thing’s for sure, Buffalo will always have a say north of the border.”
Iavarone, 50, was shot dead in the midst of a dispute between two Niagara Region groups of mobsters who are both tied to the New York state mob, several former southern Ontario organized crime police investigators said.
Buffalo would have to give approval for high-level killings, sources said, adding that mob leaders there are believed to have turned their backs on one side in the dispute and given tacit approval to the other.
“They’re all supposed to be under Buffalo,” one source said of the two feuding Ontario crime factions.
“This does not end well for anyone,” the former police organized crime specialist said.
Iavarone’s killer hid in bushes outside his detached home at on Sunflower Cres. in Ancaster’s quiet Scenic Woods neighbourhood, shooting him around 9:55 p.m. as he walked from his car. He was killed in retaliation for the murder of Angelo (Ang) Musitano, 39, in the Hamilton suburb of Waterdown in May 2017 and the revenge for Musitano’s murder is far from over, former police organized crime investigators said.
Iavarone didn’t take part in Musitano’s murder but he was close to one of the suspected killers, a source said.
Musitano was shot at close range several times while in his truck outside his home while his wife and children waited inside for him. Years earlier, Musitano and his brother Pasquale (Pat) were convicted of conspiracy related to the 1997 murder of Niagara Falls mobster Carmen Barillaro.
“This (Iavarone murder) is for Ang,” one former investigator said. “This is retaliation for Ang.”
Iavarone didn’t have a criminal record. He was known to police because he was “associated to individuals involved in traditional organized crime in the Hamilton area,” Det.-Sgt. Peter Thom of the Hamilton police said hours after his murder.
“It’s our belief that there is something going on in the underworld, maybe a power struggle,” Thom said.
Some of Iavarone’s underworld ties were south of the border, sources said.
“The recently deceased had ties to New York,” a former police investigator said.
“Buffalo factions of traditional organized crime are not ‘in’ Canada per se, but historically have controlled aspects of Canadian ‘family business’ and do get kickbacks from profits from illicit activity,” Manning said.
Prior to his death, Musitano was owed money from a man involved in gambling who worked for New York state mobsters, a source said. When he demanded payment or a piece of the gambling operation, he was murdered by a crew of Niagara Region men connected to the gambler, the sources said. None of the men involved in the Angelo Musitano murder were actual mob members, leaving them vulnerable to retaliation, the source said.
They have already been cut astray by the New York mob, a police source said.
“They have no backing,” the source said.
“It’s our belief that there is something going on in the underworld, maybe a power struggle.”
DET.-SGT. PETER THOM
HAMILTON POLICE