The closure of government-run casinos also created an opening for lavish, spa-like illegal betting palaces to thrive. “Match-fixing and gambling is exploding during this time,” Hill said.Īfter shutdowns and schedule shrinking hit many major sports leagues, gamblers showed they were eager to drop bets on virtually anything, including chess, Hill said. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, University of New Haven, Conn., said in an interview. “If you’re addicted to sports gambling, you’ll bet on anything,” Declan Hill, an associate professor at the Henry C. There has been plenty of wagering on high-level chess, but it’s not because gamblers are worked up by the Netflix hit “The Queen’s Gambit,” a professor who studies sports gambling said. Much of that pot was destined for the American market, police said. The pot haul was made after officers executed 15 search warrants throughout York Region, including Markham, King, Stouffville and East Gwillimbury, resulting in 37 arrests and 67 charges. Investigators with the York Regional Police announced that a three-month operation this summer by its Organized Crime Bureau - Guns, Gangs and Drug Enforcement Unit netted approximately $150 million dollars worth of illegal cannabis. Internationally, drones, submersibles and tunnels became increasingly popular for smuggling during the pandemic.Ĭanadians were sometimes on the producing end in the illegal drug business in the pandemic underworld. They just had to do a little better job improving their supply chains and delivery, just like legions of legitimate businesses. “Investing money on legitimate business as medical supplies may be a good opportunity to clean some cash,” Najera said.Īs the pandemic pressed on, local criminals realized that addicts and more casual users weren’t going anywhere and that fentanyl, marijuana and methamphetamine can be produced locally while cocaine could still be smuggled into the country. “There could be some visionaries among the cartels that could try to take advantage of the pandemic and its effects to push for new markets,” Najera said in an online interview. Some are struggling to survive while others have sniffed out chances to finally overtake their rivals and diversify their interests. Luis Horacio Najera, a GTA academic who covered the cocaine trade as a reporter in Ciudad de Juarez, Mexico, said the pandemic hasn’t hit all drug cartels equally. Immediately after the pandemic hit last March, illegal drugs became the toilet paper of the underworld - meaning cocaine, heroin and other narcotics were the target of panic buying and hoarding. ![]() De Maria, who was convicted of a 1981 second-degree murder over a drug debt, has had his deportation hearing indefinitely postponed after he argued he wasn’t well enough for pandemic travel.Įxperts agree the COVID-19 crisis has hit different facets of underworld life at varying degrees of intensity. ![]() “The bad news is the surge of online activity during lockdown has multiplied the opportunities for the ever-growing cyber criminal fraternity,” he continues.įor some, the new opportunities lie in a new division of police resources, weakened enemies, legitimate business failures and sloppy online security.įor Mississauga mobster Vincenzo (Jimmy) De Maria, 66, the global pandemic meant he could present a viable argument to immigration authorities that he is too frail to be deported to Italy. “Crime tends to be a first-mover, sussing out new opportunities whenever a crisis like COVID-19 arises,” Misha Glenny, a fellow at the Berggruen Institute think tank, writes on his blog. Meanwhile, experts say the smartest organized criminals are now rebounding and even expanding after their initial pandemic scare. Such discreet online mourning is part of the new realities of life - and death - for local and international organized criminals during the COVID-19 crisis. ![]() When his associate, Joseph Catroppa, was shot dead outside a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, in September, his funeral service in Woodbridge was also a private, quiet affair, marked publicly by only an online announcement. Pat Musitano was a brash, loud mob boss, but his funeral was so low key it went almost entirely unnoticed after he was murdered by a gunman in a Burlington parking lot this summer in the midst of the global pandemic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |