Police fear Hamilton, York Region attacks signal Mob war

TORONTO — A fire in Woodbridge early Wednesday is the latest in more than a dozen attacks in Hamilton and York Region that have police wondering whether southern Ontario is becoming a Mob battlefield, police sources say.

Organized crime investigators are probing a nighttime fire at a home that was fired upon twice earlier this month.

The home on Mellings Drive was fully engulfed in flames when a call was received from neighbours at 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Const. Andy Pattenden of York Regional Police said.

The house was under guard at the time of the fire and the occupants were not inside.

“It was unoccupied at the time,” Pattenden said.

Property records show the Mellings Drive house belongs to Maria Arevalo and Giuseppe Cuntrera. It was bought in May 2005 for $785,000.

Police are also investigating an attempted arson at the home of Cuntrera’s uncle in August.

York Regional Police responded to the Mellings Drive residence on the night of Aug. 7 to find bullet holes in the garage.

The front door was shot up during the night of June 12.

Also that night, someone tossed what appeared to be an accelerant into the Di Manno Bakery in Vaughan.

There were no injuries in any of the attacks.

The Caffe Corretto was destroyed by an explosion in late June.

The Corretto was one of 11 cafés in Toronto and York Region where investigators found illegal gaming machines in January 2016 during a multi-police force sweep known as Project Oeider.

Police seized 74 illegal gaming machines and approximately $200,000 in cash from the 11 cafés.

Days earlier, mobster and baker Pasquale (Pat) Musitano’s Hamilton home on St. Clair Boulevard was sprayed with bullets.

And on May 2, Musitano’s younger brother, Angelo Musitano, was shot to death in the driveway of his home in Waterdown, while his wife and preschool-aged children were inside.

The brothers were initially accused of taking out Mob boss Johnny “Pops’ Papalia in 1997, allegedly ordering hit man Kenny Murdock to commit the murder. But they struck a deal, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of Niagara crime boss Carmen Barillaro, Papalia’s lieutenant.

The brothers served two-thirds of their 10-year sentences and were released from prison in October 2006.

The Waterdown murder and St. Clair Boulevard attack are still under investigation.