Alfonso Gagliano has held titles in Canada that include labor minister, deputy House leader, ambassador to Denmark and minister of public works.
In New York he held a different kind of title, according to secret FBI documents obtained by the Daily News: “made” member of the Bonanno crime family.
Gagliano was identified as a longtime soldier in the Bonanno crime family by Frank Lino, a former Mafia capo-turned-informer.
Lino is now cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors as they slowly take apart the mob family to which he once swore allegiance.
Gagliano’s name surfaced as Lino described the Bonanno family’s operations in Montreal, which has served as an outpost for the Brooklyn-based group for decades.
He said he and a group of top Bonanno gangsters traveled to Montreal in the 1990s to let the northern branch office know the family had a new boss, Joseph Massino.
The group met at a catering hall, and during the meeting, a Bonanno gangster, Joseph Lopresti, introduced Gagliano to Lino as a made man in the family, FBI documents state.
Lino made a point of telling the FBI that only actual members of the Bonanno family were allowed to attend the meeting at the catering hall. Associates were banned.
Gagliano attorney Pierre Fournier did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
For years, Gagliano was a fixture in Canada’s national politics, rising through the ranks of the Liberal Party.
But his most powerful position was undoubtedly Canada’s minister of public works and government services, the office that oversees the Canadian mint and awards most of Canada’s government contracts.
In that capacity, Gagliano found himself embroiled in a growing scandal over potential corruption in the awarding of contracts for government advertising.
In February, he was dismissed as ambassador.
There is an ongoing investigation into allegations that government funds were funneled to large contributors to the Liberal Party for no-work contracts.
Lino was shown an array of photographs and identified Gagliano, the FBI documents state.
When he began cooperating with the FBI, Lino admitted he was involved in six murders, several attempted murders, loansharking, extortion and gambling.
Libranos flashback….
update Western Standard staff writer, Kevin Steel has written to the Daily News asking if any Canadian news agency has asked for copies of the FBI documents. Heh.
For family entertainment, I sent them the following in May. But the truth is truly shocking. Whoda thought?
Martin Campaign Team Divided
OTTAWA – An angry division has erupted among The Prime Minister’s campaign
strategists.
Some strategists are angry that Prime Minister Paul Martin is planning to
make a quiet trip to the U. S. With Liberal polling numbers falling, they
say the last thing that he needs to do is to be seen cozing up to the
Americans. On Wednesday three of his key planners were threatening to
resign over the matter. Things became so heated that Mr. Martin had to
cancel an appearance at the Toronto Chamber of Commerce so that he could
return to Ottawa to mediate the dispute. The three planners insisted that
he not make another trip to Washington. It would send the wrong signal to
many of the “soft” Liberal supporters and drive them to the NDP. This vote
splitting could make a crucial difference in many Ontario and BC ridings.
Mr Martin tried to calm them by letting them know that he wasn’t making a
trip to Washington but merely making a trip with a few advisors for a
private consultation. His planners insisted that images of him standing
side by side with President Bush would be a campaign disaster. This brought
a chuckle from the PM’s entourage. “Don’t worry I’m not off to Washington
to see the President. Just a quick trip to Newark, to see Tony Soprano.”
Written by CBC News Online staff
Kate, in the 1987 published Mafia Enforcer, by Cecil Kirby and Thomas C. Renner, a biography that deals extensively with Canadian outlaw biker – Mafia ties, he says:
“Galante’s top men at first were Giuseppi and Vincent Cotroni. The youngest brother, Francesco or Frank, moved up later. At the same time, the Cotronis’ closest supporter and enforcer was Paulo Violi. The only guy who wasn’t a Calabrin was Galante — he was born in the States. His father was supposed to be an immigrant fisherman from Castellammare del Golfo, the same Sicilian village the Bonannos came from.
They formed a Bonanno family branch that ruled Montreal and provided a smuggling route into the United States for heroin that was imported from Sicily and Marseilles. Public hearings in the States and narcotics agents confirmed that.
The Montreal branch then became a full-fledged Canadian crime family run by Vincent Cotrini. Galante eventually became Bonanno’s successor and got greedy. He tried to take over the narcotics supply routes of some of the bosses of the American Cosa Nostra, and they had him knocked off by his own people, replacing him with Philip Rastelli, who had a lot of friends in Toronto. Before Galante was killed, Cotrini went to jail for a couple of years and Paulo Violi became the acting boss of the Montreal family…”