Carmelo Bruzzese (; born 13 July 1949) is an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordi ...

mobster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

from Grotteria,

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

, who was connected to the

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

and the

Siderno Group The Siderno Group is a criminal association in Canada, Australia and Italy related to the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organization in Calabria. The association is labelled the "Siderno Group" because its members primarily came from the town of Side ...

branch based in

Woodbridge, Ontario Woodbridge is a very large suburban community in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, along the city's border with Toronto. It occupies the city's entire southwest quadrant, west of Ontario Highway 400, Highway 400, east of Ontario Highway 50, Highway 50, n ...

Early life and family

Bruzzese was born in 1949, in Grotteria, Calabria, Italy. He immigrated to Canada on 3 May 1974, and later became a

permanent resident Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with such l ...

in Canada.2014 FC 230
(March 7, 2014). ''decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca''. Retrieved January 13, 2016 In 1977, he returned to Italy, travelling between countries several times. He returned to Canada on 12 December 2009, to

, where he settled with his wife, Carla Calabro, who is a Canadian citizen. He has five children; his daughter Melina, a Canadian citizen, married Italian mobster Antonio Coluccio, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2018 for corruption, and his son Carlo, a Canadian citizen, serving a six-year sentence for the Italian crime of mafia association.

Wanted in Italy for mafia association and deportation

In 2008, Bruzzese was charged, and faced a trial in Italy, on the allegation that he was associated with the

Rizzuto crime family The Rizzuto crime family () is an Italian Canadian crime family based in Montreal, Quebec, whose organized crime activity covers most of southern Quebec and Ontario. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considers the family a ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

; he was later acquitted of this charge. In September 2010, an

arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a jud ...

was issued by the Italian authorities pursuant to article 416-bis of the Italian Criminal Code, which deals with mafia association, and later registered on 30 April 2018, with

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

as a

red notice An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...

. However, he was not

extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

because there is no charge in Canada for association with a

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

-like organization under the '' IRPA''. On 21 August 2013, a section 44 IRPA report was written alleging that Bruzzese is inadmissible to Canada under paragraph 37(1)(a) of the IRPA for membership in the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization. On 22 August 2013, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and the next day, Bruzzese was arrested and detained by the immigration authorities at his Woodbridge home on the allegation of being unlikely to appear and of being a danger to the public. He was detained at

Maplehurst Correctional Complex Maplehurst Correctional Complex () is a correctional facility located in Milton, Ontario for women and men 18 years of age and older. It is a combined maximum security detention centre for remanded prisoners, and medium/maximum correctional cent ...

. At his May 2014

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (or IRB; , CISR), established in 1989 by an Act of Parliament, is an independent administrative tribunal that is responsible for making decisions on immigration and refugee matters. As one of their resp ...

(IRB) hearing, there was a heightened security presence after Carmine Verduci, a 'Ndrangheta member and close associate of Bruzzese's, was gunned down two weeks prior. At another IRB hearing, Bruzzese had admitted

under oath Traditionally, an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead. ...

that he had his children physically bring large sums of cash from Italy on a regular basis instead of using bank wire, transfers or electronic transfers; he also acknowledged during his testimony that he drove a

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

registered in another person's name whose last name he did not know; he claimed medications prescribed to another person as his own; and he also bought a $600,000 home in Canada with one of his sons despite stating in the hearing that he did not earn enough money in Canada to file a

tax return A tax return is a form on which a person or organization presents an account of income and circumstances, used by the tax authorities to determine liability for tax. Tax returns are usually processed by each country's tax authority, known as ...

. In August 2015, the IRB issued a

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

order for Bruzzese. Bruzzese appealed the decision to the

Federal Court of Canada The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the Parliament of Canada, federal government's Canadi ...

, but it was rejected, and on 2 October 2015, Bruzzese was escorted onto a plane in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, landing in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where he was arrested by Italian police. Major Giuseppe De Felice, a commander with the

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

, told the IRB that Bruzzese "assumed the most important roles and decisions. He gave the orders." As of 2017, he awaits trial in Italy for a possible 10-year sentence for mafia association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruzzese, Carmelo 1949 births Living people 20th-century Canadian criminals 21st-century Canadian criminals 20th-century Italian criminals 21st-century Italian criminals Canadian gangsters Canadian male criminals Canadian people of Calabrian descent Criminals from Ontario Italian-Canadian organized crime Italian emigrants to Canada Italian male criminals 'Ndranghetisti Organized crime in Toronto People extradited from Canada People extradited to Italy People from the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria People from Vaughan