Woodbridge café blast casts ominous cloud
Explosion the latest in a series of incidents, prompting fears of a summer of Mafia mayhem
Arson, murder, hails of gunfire — a string of attacks in Hamilton and York Region has police wondering whether southern Ontario is becoming the battlefield for a summer of Mob violence.
The latest dramatic incident happened Thursday morning in Woodbridge, when a massive explosion knocked a wall out of the Caffé Corretto.
“It’s a suspicious explosion,” York police spokesperson Const. Andy Pattenden said after the blast.
The incident came as investigators probe whether there are connections between a spate of recent suspected Mob attacks.
The explosion marked the fifth incident in less than two months with possible Mob undertones.
“Things are heating up,” one police source told the Star.
Just days before the Woodbridge explosion, mobster and baker Pasquale (Pat) Musitano’s Hamilton home 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, north of Hamilton, while his wife and preschool-aged children were inside.
The Musitano brothers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the 1997 fatal shooting death of Niagara crime boss Carmen Barillaro after their hit man, Kenny Murdock, turned against them.
Their father, Domenic Musitano, died of natural causes in 1995.
Murdock was in jail on an extortion charge when he turned informer against the brothers after being convinced by police that they had turned against him.
The brothers were released from prison in October 2006 after serving two-thirds of their10-year sentences.
No arrests have been made in Angelo Musitano’s death or the attack on Pat Musitano’s home.
In another recent incident, there were no injuries when someone shot up the home of a wealthy York Region mobster in mid-June. That mobster has since gone on vacation.
And, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 12, someone tossed what appeared to be an accelerant into the Di Manno Bakery in Vaughan.
Thursday’s explosion at the Caffé Corretto rained bits of brick and gaming machines down on the adjoining strip mall parking lot, covering a black BMW sedan in debris.
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.
Pattenden said a 33-year-old man was found near the scene suffering from non-life threatening injuries.
The man was arrested and taken to hospital, but there was no immediate word on charges, Pattenden said.
Thursday’s attack on the Caffé Corretto happened at around 5:20 a.m. The scene was sealed off by police pending investigations by the Ontario Fire Marshal and Emergency Management.
The explosion was in a corner unit of the one-storey plaza, which also contains a car window tinting business and a nail salon. With files from Peter Goffin