Introduction
Canada, as one of the biggest countries, involves many multicultural communities. They have their traditions, cultures, features, and behaviors. With the growing level of these communities, the criminal rate started to rise, which resulted in the creation of unlawful groups called mafias. Their activity is spread nationwide, especially in big, developed cities like Toronto.
These groups possess their specific hierarchical structures, which involve multiple subgroups. Such complex formations improve and strengthen the villains’ activity and dramatically negatively affect society and government. Mafias’ functioning harms social and state order, decreases safety levels, and leads to constant law violation growth.
Mafias of Canada
The tendency of Canada’s development leads to creation of criminal groups called mafias. Mostly big cities attract mafias because of the active lifestyle and illegal financial activities. Overall, Canada’s mafias function most actively in Toronto and Montreal (Sergi, 2022). Mafias are based on tight connections, focusing on trustful familial relations, and commit organized criminal activities to gain profits and power (Sergi, 2022). They function by governing different territories of the cities and undertaking unlawful businesses in these territories (Sergi, 2022). One of the most powerful mafias in Canada is of Italian origin, called Ndrangheta. Its structure includes the layers, that hold power and rules the mafia.
Ndrangheta
Structure of Ndrangheta
The hierarchy of Ndrangheta has been constructed over a long period and involves multiple roles, especially on the lower levels. The second layer mainly consists of different districts, where the building blocks of the group’s families are located (Sergi, 2022). These families’ role is to manage their districts’ stable operations (Sergi, 2022). Each building block of Ndrangheta is sorted accordingly and divided into major society and minor society, where the last one requires its members to undergo service for half of a year to obtain a higher rank (Sergi, 2022). This rank allows the members to hold authority in minor society, accept orders from major society, and oversee the community’s funds (Sergi, 2022).
Each of the sections has its local bosses who are responsible for internal activity and order fulfillment. The networking of this mafia in Toronto is highly mobile and interconnected for undertaking illegal business and laundering money (Sergi, 2022). Such structure helps masters to hold strong authority, ensuring devoted work of different layers, which results in coherent operating and great results of Ndrangheta.
Goals of Ndrangheta
The main goal of the mafia is to accumulate more authority and money, so specific ways of committing crimes are described in the following paragraph. Ndrangheta undertakes various activities connected with drug trafficking, extortion, and money laundering (Sergi, 2022). The mafia has organized its contacts to transport drugs autonomously through Canada (Machin, 2019). Such a business requires a group member to arrange a personal meeting with other members and organizations who share the same plan (Machin, 2022).
Rules of Ndrangheta
According to the policy of the mafia, the highest-ranking member is not involved in crime directly, but he appoints a trusted person who runs and carries the order directly (Machin, 2022). The members use English-Italian nicknames to avoid responsibility and prosecution for their criminal activities, complicating police investigations. Another trick for successful crime undertaking is the usage of mobile phones from black markets (Machin, 2022). It helps the mafia to hide their secret conversations and avoid surveillance. Such phones are modified, and their cameras, microphones, and GPS are removed from functioning (Machin, 2022). This way, the attentive mafia confuses the police and has more chances to hold unlawful business.
Activities of Ndrangheta
One of the most known activities of Ndrangheta is drug trafficking through cocaine pipelines. Mafia’s historical supreme boss’s son Vincenzo Macrì was arrested in 2017 and then headed to Venezuela and managed to escape to Caracas, where he used a false identity to live undercover (Machin, 2019). These circumstances allowed him to import and export drug production from America to Europe (Machin, 2019).
Ndrangheta organizes the crimes in an ethical and traditional Italian way, being active in unlawful activity among communities (Machin, 2022). The mafia also commits crimes by reinvesting illegal money into businesses in recreation and entertainment (Machin, 2019). As a result, the elaborative and well-designed work of Ndrangheta leads to its spread and network strengthening all over the country.
Montreal Mafia
After analyzing Toronto’s most outspoken crime families, it is worth mentioning the Montreal mafia. It was led by Frank Cotroni, who built a highly structured and organized group (Dubro, 2020). It was a New York City Mafia branch, also involved in Italian, American, and other Canadian families (Dubro, 2020). This mafia’s main activities were connected with the illegal game business, drug trafficking, public officials’ corruption, and others (Dubro, 2020). Montreal’s mafia went through various battles with other mafias in the city, and its last decade of activity was full of infightings (Dubro, 2020). As noticed, this crime family was also powerful and distinct among the clans of Canada.
Conclusion
The rising level of different multicultural communities in Canada promotes the growth of the crime rate. Mafias are groups that have been undertaking unlawful activity for a long time. They have spread their network nationwide, especially in big industrialized cities such as Toronto. This fact is justified because agile city’s lifestyle and various illegal affairs attract mafias and facilitate law-breaking rates.
Ndrangheta is an example of a successful leading group in the criminal world of Canada. It is structured thoroughly, with different levels and layers consisting of multiple roles. Popular activities of Ndrangheta involve money laundering, massive riots, and drug trafficking. They use nicknames, technological tricks, and other methods to confuse police in the investigation process. As a result, the functioning of the mafia destroys social life in Toronto and breaks the state’s order, decreasing safety and fostering violation.
References
Dubro, J., Champlain, P., & L. MacAdam, W. (2020). Organized Crime in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Web.
Machin, A. (2019). Ndrangheta in Greater Toronto Area hit but still to powerful – “There are 9 (Mafia clans) of us”. Gangsters Inc. Web.
Machin, A. (2022). ‘Ndrangheta dynamics in the Greater Toronto Area: The story of an internal mafia clash (Part 3.1). Cosa Nostra News. Web.
Sergi, A. (2022) Mafia borderland: Narratives, traits, and expectations of Italian-American mafias in Ontario and the Niagara region. Journal of Borderlands Studies. Web.