02x06 - The Mob: The Cocaine Godfather

[bunniefuu]

MAN: Shake this Square World

and blast off for Kicksville.

NIXON: America's public enemy

number one is drug abuse.

NANCY: Just say no.

MAN: The Mafia is a major

player in the international

drug underworld.

MAN 2: At the end of the day,

it's all about the dollar.

It's all about the dollar.

REAGAN: American

people want the Mob,

and its associates

brought to justice,

and their power broken.

HARRIS: There's now an

understanding that the w*r on

drugs was an abject failure.

MAN 3: You have to

stop and ask yourself,

how did we get here?

Brought to you by Sailor420

!!! Hope you enjoy the film !!!

(thunder)

(wind)

(helicopter rotors)

JOHN: You have to be pretty

top-notch in your profession,

just to survive it all.

You get heavy turbulence.

You gotta slow the aircraft

down because you could

have structural failure.

Like, losing a wing

wouldn't be much fun.

A North Atlantic

storm in November,

it's a pretty impressive event,

to put it mildly.

My name is

John Raymond Boulanger.

I'm what you would

call a mercenary pilot.

I fly for hire, to

he who pays the most.

I had 4,343 kilos of cocaine,

and I was flying from Colombia,

directly to Canada.

Normally the flight

would be about nine

hours, give or take.

But I ran into the storm,

for about 45 minutes or an

hour, before I broke out.

And, low and behold,

there were the F-18s.

Then they were off to my rear.

And the other guy came

up close beside us,

and flying around me,

making signals to go down.

And I just waved to him.

They can't sh**t at you.

But they were

running out of gas.

We were just timing

it and say, okay, how

long is it gonna be before

they're gonna run out?

It was interesting.

He gave us a nice little show.

I went down to treetop level.

I flew the rest of

the way treetop level.

Below radar, so nobody knew

where the airplane was.

The authorities put out an

alert, to all the airports.

There's a big white Convair,

somewhere in Canada,

if anybody saw

it to report it.

I should have arrived

around 6:00 in the morning,

but I arrived at

quarter to nine, instead.

I was standing

out on the runway,

waiting for the crew hired

to go and do the pick-up.

I looked all over the place,

couldn't figure out where

the hell these guys were.

Turns out they had been

there since 3 in the morning.

At around 7:30,

they decided I wasn't coming,

and they left!

So, anyway, I started walking.

And a truck went by.

I hitch-hiked.

And he gave me a lift all

the way down to the lumber camp,

and that's where I was when

the RCMP arrived by helicopter,

'cause the Police had

blocked off all the roads.

So they asked,

"What's in the airplane?"

I said, "Cocaine."

And he says, "How much?"

I says, "A lot!"

ANCHOR: It's being

touted as the biggest drug

bust in Canadian history,

and probably the

most dramatic.

CHRIS: The seizure of 4,300

kilos of cocaine really

reverberated through DEA.

That's a staggering

amount of cocaine,

coupled with the fact

that it was flown directly

from the North Coast of

Colombia, into Canada.

JOHN: I would have

made around 45 million.

It's a pretty good payday.

For one day's work,

that's not bad.

I was arrested.

Pled guilty and got 23 years.

And that was it

and became famous.

But I take things

with a grain of salt.

It was and I

believe it still is,

the biggest bust ever in Canada.

CHRIS: We were just wondering,

who could be behind this?

JOHN:

Everybody knows who it is,

but I don't technically

wanna say their names,

but they know.

PIETRO: Don't get me wrong,

these people are K*llers.

But he was always a

gentleman, very charismatic.

Everywhere he went,

he showed respect.

VITO: Best lawyer in

the country, over here.

ANTONIO: Nick Rizzuto

was very ambitious.

He came from a major

crime family in Sicily.

Nick talked it up that

he belonged to the kind of,

the aristocracy of the Mafia.

But when he came to Canada,

he realized there was

a well-established criminal

organization in power.

PIETRO: Anybody that lived

in Canada would tell you,

I wanna go to

Montréal and enjoy myself,

because of all

the nightclubs.

The downtown core

of a two-kilometer radius,

we had 480 licensed

alcohol establishments.

And, for the great part,

they were controlled

by the Cotroni family.

The gambling,

the loan sharking,

protection, if you

had a business you had to

buy their cheese, you

had to buy their ice-cream.

They controlled everything.

ANTONIO: Vic Cotroni

came from Calabria.

Nick Rizzuto came from Sicily.

And there was bad

blood between them,

since the beginning.

They never like one another.

Nick Rizzuto found

himself among powerful men,

and he tried to find

an area of operation.

NICK: Rizzuto's

organization had three main

profile-driven schemes:

drugs, particularly heroin,

money laundering, and

public construction contracts.

Nick Rizzuto Senior's

intentions were to create

profits that would endure,

not only his lifetime,

but the lifetime of

his grandchildren.

PIETRO:

There was gonna be violence.

There was gonna be a turf w*r.

He knew that was coming.

(g*nshots)

♫ ♫

ANTONIO: Nick Rizzuto,

with his family,

left the Canada

and moved to Venezuela,

because he fear for his life.

He had to run.

PIETRO: Rizzuto had a lot

of connections in Venezuela.

He had family there.

And he used that family to

really strive and gain power.

ANTONIO: Venezuela,

at that time,

was a place where the

Mafia was well-established,

and they were able to

infiltrate institution,

banks, to corrupt

the politicians,

because they willing

to accept their money.

It was the perfect

place to establish a

criminal enterprise.

Because they were

very close to Colombia,

and very close to

drug traffickers there.

NICK: Cocaine was emerging

as a popular drug of

choice in North America.

JOHN: Cocaine pretty well

displaced the heroin market,

the beginning of the 80s.

PIETRO: Heroin was

for addicts, junkies,

whereas cocaine was part

of having a glass of wine,

everybody would consume.

There was cocaine

all over the place.

JOHN: Once it started

getting popularized,

with the disco culture

and all that sort of stuff,

then it went skyrocket.

NICK: Nick Rizzuto

saw the opportunity to

create millions of dollars

from cocaine.

CHRIS:

The Cali Cartel got their

start in the early 1970s,

by sending smaller

quantities of cocaine

into the United States.

And they were slowly able

to evolve into bringing

in larger quantities.

They were able to really

present themselves

as businessmen.

CHRIS: So they wore suits.

They socialized with the

upper society, the elites.

CHRIS: Drugs would

leave Colombia, go into

Venezuela, depart Venezuela,

and go into Canada.

CHRIS: Cocaine was coming

in camouflaged, in anything

that you could think of:

seafood, fish, shrimp, coffee.

REPORTER: Agents find more

than seven tons of cocaine,

hidden in broccoli boxes.

CHRIS: These kind of

shipments and these methods

were extremely effective for

bringing drugs

into the United States.

PIETRO: Nick Rizzuto groomed

his son, Vito, very well.

And, today, we don't see

mobsters of that caliber,

of that personality.

He was a tall man,

with a deep voice,

and he spoke

four languages fluently.

ANTONIO: For

Vito Rizzuto, the son of Nick,

was the baptism of fire.

♫ ♫

PISTONE:

My name is Joseph Pistone,

Special Agent in the FBI.

I was undercover

for six years, in the

Bonanno crime family,

and my undercover name

was Donnie Brasco.

During this operation,

I found out that the

Mafia crew, up in Montréal,

were considered a faction

of the Bonanno Mafia family.

They had their own boss,

and everything, but they were

loyal to the Bonanno family,

in New York City.

PISTONE: There was

a lot of friction within

the Bonanno family.

There were three capos

that were not loyal to

the boss, who was in jail.

They wanted to take

over the family.

So they called

a sit-down, which is a

meeting, and the plan was,

when the three opposition

capos got to the meeting,

they would k*ll them.

One of the guys they

brought in for the hit was

Vito Rizzuto, from Montréal.

When the three capos

walked in, the guys

were hiding in a closet,

and these guys jumped out,

and Vito Rizzuto yelled,

"This is a stick-up."

(g*nshots)

Hitting three capos,

at one time, is a

big deal within the Mafia.

To Vito Rizzuto, it

was a feather in his cap,

to solidify his

place in the family.

REPORTER:

Two shotgun blasts,

at close range.

Paolo Violi dead, in

his own Montréal coffee bar.

Violi's death

was part of a g*ng w*r,

that has not yet ended.

REPORTER 2: The

hotel K*llers wore masks

and used submachine g*ns.

Police say they knew

exactly who they were after.

They shot three men in the

bar and a fourth outside.

PRODUCER: Okay good,

we are good to go.

We're rolling on this end.

♫ ♫

REPORTER: The self-confessed

hitman told the court

he saw Montréal mobster,

Frank Cotroni as

a father figure.

When asked why he k*lled for

Cotroni, Simard answered,

"I wanted to be

part of the family.

I wanted to treat

him with respect."

PIETRO: Real Simard brought

down the Cotroni family.

He brought down

the Cotroni family.

NICK:

Vito was to be the godfather,

le parrain, of Montréal.

PIETRO: The legitimate

economy was booming, and

so was organized crime.

The Rizzutos came

along with the cocaine.

That was the new product.

That was the new thing.

NICK: The Rizzuto crime

family did not have the

will to distribute,

because they wanted to remain

anonymous, and to avoid

detection from the different

law enforcement

agencies in Canada.

They had to develop a

relationship with those

that had the capacity,

and the manpower, to

distribute on the street.

Thereby you see a relationship

developing between the Rizzuto

crime family and the outlaw

motorcycle gangs.

CHRIS: Thousands of kilos

were coming into Canada,

that were being distributed

by the Rizzutos,

was going to the Hells Angels,

the West End g*ng,

other street gangs.

ANTONIO: He succeed

by creating the strategic

alliances between the Mafia,

the Colombian cartels,

the street gangs,

the Hells Angels.

PIETRO: He was a visionary.

He had the talent of

getting people together.

REPORTER: Drugs and money,

they go hand in hand.

Cocaine and marijuana sales

generate so much money that

smugglers literally have

no place to put it all.

PIETRO: In order

to combat organized crime

and money laundering,

you gotta follow the money,

not the individual,

not the product

Follow the money.

ANTONIO: At one point,

Colombians want to be

paid in American Dollars.

And so, Vito Rizzuto

had this major issue,

to convert Canadian Dollars

in American Dollars.

PIETRO: The RCMP and Montreal

Police opened up an exchange

bureau, a money exchange.

Like, in every major city

in the world, you would

change your currency.

It wasn't phony,

it was a real exchange bureau,

with real employees,

right smack downtown Montreal.

And the service was

excellent, and they were

acting like Western Union,

that everybody knows today.

But it's a sting operation.

Wise guys would bring

in their money to exchange

from Canadian to American,

and then wire it to

Venezuela, Peru, or Colombia,

for the purchase of narcotics.

It was fantastic.

All the serial numbers

were noted, of every bill.

It was a brilliant

undercover operation.

Brilliant.

REPORTER:

More than 40 suspects

were rounded up yesterday,

during a massive

sweep by the RCMP.

Security at

the Montréal Courthouse

was particularly tight,

as the accused were arraigned

on more than 500 charges.

CHRIS: Sabatino Nicolucci

was an important conduit for

the Rizzuto crime family,

with the Cali Cartel.

He had contact

with the Cali Cartel,

and was able to coordinate

a lot of drug shipments,

from Colombia into

Canada, for the Rizzutos.

And Sabatino Nicolucci

laundered in excess of

$30 million,

through this undercover

currency exchange house.

He was wanted on over

400 counts of drug trafficking,

and money laundering.

Nicolucci had done loads,

on behalf of Vito Rizzuto,

in Montreal.

We deployed to Cali,

and set up surveillance on

the apartment complex that

we had identified through

the telephone tone analysis.

We made a phone

call into the residence,

'cause we had the number.

(ringing)

And, a few minutes later,

we did a raid on the apartment.

And Sabatino Nicolucci

was arrested.

This was definitely

a significant arrest,

because of the overall

player that he was.

REPORTER: The RCMP says the

operation had dealt a major

blow to organized crime.

Rizzuto's name appears

on this court document,

of people allegedly involved

in the money laundering.

REPORTER 2: He's been

called Canada's Teflon Don.

In the 80s, the man the

RCMP calls The Godfather

of the Montreal Mafia,

dodged the b*llet on

drug trafficking charges.

VITO: Best lawyer in

the country, over here.

PIETRO: Vito Rizzuto was

never directly involved with it.

He was never charged.

His associates were.

He never directly put his

hands in the cookie jar.

He always had somebody

else do it for him.

He had a art of delegating.

He should have given

management courses,

in university.

The Rizzutos make a lot

of money,

and they reinvest

it back into gaming,

internet gambling,

finance companies, construction.

So, basically,

they became parallel banks.

And, slowly,

they're getting away from it,

because with cocaine

you do a lot of time.

The moneymaker was the drugs.

But Vito wanted his kids to

go straight, go legitimate.

NICK: Vito Rizzuto's most

important legacy he wanted to

leave behind was the fact that

his children had not

adopted the lifestyle

that he had for himself.

CHRIS: If you give

law enforcement enough time,

they will be able to take

down any criminal organization.

♫ ♫

REPORTER: Killings, that took

place more than 20 years ago.

The victims,

three members of the notorious

Bonanno crime family.

They were shot dead

in a New York city

social club, in 1981,

during a bloody internal w*r.

PISTONE: Cases like

that never go away.

And eventually somebody's

gonna get arrested,

somebody's gonna talk.

It took over

20 years to solve the case,

but at the time of the

hits of the three capos,

Joey Massino was one of the

main players in the k*lling.

And then, from this hit,

Joey Massino becomes a

boss of the Bonanno family,

and then Vito becomes

boss up in Montreal.

He didn't wanna die

in an electric chair.

When Joey turns, he actually

testifies against Vito.

His information is that

Vito was in on the hit, and

he was one of the shooters.

So, it gave the

Government enough ammunition,

and enough evidence,

to indict Vito.

PIETRO: It was the 20th of

January, it was a cold day.

We went at his

house with Nick Milano,

at six in the morning.

It was all coordinated

with the United States, also.

NICK: Pietro and I

arrived at the door.

We were welcomed by his wife.

Upon entering, Mr. Rizzuto

was at the top of the stairway.

PIETRO: Actually,

the first thing he says,

he asks his wife to

"make me a coffee."

I knew Vito.

And he says, "Pietro,

what are you here for?"

I said, "I have a

warrant to execute."

NICK: We stepped

into the parlor,

and I informed him

that I was arresting him,

with regards to the triple

murders conducted in New York.

PIETRO: He didn't really

take it seriously, in

the sense that he says,

"My lawyer is working

on that."

He was wearing his jeans and,

I guess, when I'm nervous

I tend to joke around

more than anything else,

so I asked him,

"Mr. Rizzuto,

it's a big arrest for me,

could you put a suit on?"

You know, and he did.

(sirens)

REPORTER:

Today, Vito Rizzuto's

luck finally ran out,

in a Brooklyn courtroom.

Rizzuto was sentenced to ten

years, for his role in a brutal,

triple m*rder,

in New York, 26 years ago.

ANTONIO: Nick and Vito were

in power for at least 25 years.

One of the longest reign

in the history of the Mafia,

in North America.

Vito Rizzuto was able to

build a criminal enterprise

worth billions of dollars.

When he was in a prison

in the United States,

that was the most difficult

ten years of his life,

because old enemies

and new enemies get together

and start to k*ll the people

very close to Rizzuto.

REPORTER: Nick Rizzuto

Senior, the 86-year-old head

of Canada's most

famous Mafia family,

has been shot and

k*lled in his own home.

REPORTER 2: His sh**ting,

in his home last week,

comes less than

a year after grandson,

Nick Junior, was

gunned down in public.

PIETRO:

He lost his father while he

was in jail, and then his son.

That devastated him.

His closest allies

actually turned on him.

And he never thought that

he had so many people

that would back-stab him.

I saw him when he came

out of jail, and he was

totally a different person.

Totally a different person.

NICK: Vito Rizzuto's

claim to fame, if you will,

his strength,

had always been negotiation.

ANTONIO: Vito Rizzuto

pioneered the way criminal

organization should

work and operate.

The idea of building

the strategic alliance

to conquer new markets.

Today, the 'Ndrangheta is

the most globalized Mafia.

They operate in

almost five continents,

and they use the same

system of Vito Rizzuto.

PIETRO: You can control it,

but we'll never

eliminate organized crime

Never.