Slain woman had ‘magnetic presence’
Chantelle Almeida was shot dead sitting with a man related to organized crime boss
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for the funeral of 26-year-old Chantelle Almeida who was shot dead while sitting in a car beside a man related to an organized crime boss.
The fundraising effort has reached $17,610 of its $25,000 goal as of 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Almeida had worked at Toronto City Hall for nine months as an administrative assistant and started a job this year in an employment services agency.
Also killed in the early Friday morning shooting on Castlepoint Dr. in Woodbridge was Cosimo Ernesto (Coco) Commisso, 33, who’s related to Cosimo (The Quail) Commisso of Siderno, Italy, considered by police there to be an ’Ndrangheta organized crime boss.
Police have not released suspect information on who pumped a half dozen bullets at the couple at close range when they pulled up to the detached brick home belonging to Cosimo Ernesto Commisso’s parents near Highway 27 and Langstaff Rd. around 12:45 a.m. Friday.
Almeida was the victim of “monsters who stole her life” who “may never meet justice,” the GoFundMe page said.
Her page described her as “a magnetic burning presence” and “beautiful and bright.”
“But the best, the truly beautiful part of her was her spirit,” the posting said. “She took life to its fullest and loved wholeheartedly.”
Cosimo Ernesto Commisso, who did not have a criminal record growing up in York Region, worked at the family’s two upscale restaurants in Woodbridge and Yorkville.
A Star investigation last year found some of Commisso’s family had clashed with aggressive newcomers from B.C. and Quebec, allied to a gang called the Wolfpack Alliance.
Anastasios (Tassos) Leventis, who was connected to the Wolfpack Alliance, caused a disturbance at the family restaurant in Yorkville in 2016, picking a fight with Cosimo Ernesto Commisso, the Star investigation was told.
Leventis had moved to downtown Toronto from Montreal to collect drug debts owed to Montrealers, the Star investigation was told.
Leventis was shot and killed on Jan. 30, 2017 after he stepped out of his condo complex on George St. near Adelaide St. E., near George Brown College.
Two handguns were found at the scene. No arrest has been made.
Leventis’s older brother Mihale (Big Mike) is in custody in Quebec, scheduled to go on trial later this summer in Montreal on drug trafficking and gangsterism charges connected to a massive police operation called Project Loquace.
Mihale Leventis was charged when police made more than 100 arrests in November and December of 2012. The Sûreté du Québec charged that Mihale Leventis was one of six men who formed a consortium with ties to the Hells Angels and Irish West End Gang that organized the distribution of the cocaine.
At the time of the arrests, police said the suspects bought cocaine from Mexican drug cartels and transported it overland into Canada.