‘You’re pissed off’: Inside the decision to stay charges in the ‘biggest mafia takedown’ in York Region’s history and the finger pointing and regret that followed

But by late 2020, the case known as Project Sindacato was crumbling. Lawyers for the alleged mobsters argued in court that the police had unlawfully listened to conversations between the suspects and their lawyers.

Some charges had already been stayed. Now, the Crown prosecutors were considering staying the rest.

So, in January 2021, police hosted a meeting at their headquarters in Aurora in hopes of persuading the prosecutors that it was a strong case that should still be brought to trial.

“The actions of the officers were being misinterpreted and not properly represented and those officers could have explained themselves on the stand,” Slack recalls telling those gathered in the room. “If it was argued properly in court, I think the judge could have seen it.”

When he finished speaking, Slack read the room. He remembers thinking to himself, “I cannot believe we are not even going to try.”

Later that month, the prosecutors formally stayed the charges against alleged mobster Angelo Figliomeni, the quiet collapse of what police hoped to be a landmark prosecution. In the ruin, there is finger pointing and regret. Meanwhile, the fallout has fuelled concerns that rules governing prosecutions in Canada may inhibit large-scale investigations like Project Sindacato from securing convictions.

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• Dec 31, 1969

• Dec 31, 1969

Abandoning the prosecution was ‘an opportunity lost,’ police chief says

Crown prosecutors did not respond to specific questions about the decision to stay charges in Project Sindacato.

In a written response, the Ministry of the Attorney General said prosecution decisions made by a Crown are generally “independent of government. We need to treat serious criminal offences with the importance they deserve to keep our communities safe and criminals behind bars.”

One of the charges laid in Project Sindacato — for tax fraud — was handled by a federal Crown prosecutor. In a written statement, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said prosecutions can only proceed if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and they would serve the public interest.

“As no reasons for the stay were provided on the record in this case, we have no further information to provide.”

Senior York Regional Police (YRP) officers involved in Project Sindacato say the Crown’s decision to walk away from the most ambitious organized crime investigation in the force’s history still weighs heavily on them. The project’s collapse has left lingering concerns about public safety and the ability of police to successfully counter sophisticated organized crime operations.

“I think it was an opportunity lost,” says YRP Chief Jim MacSween, who described his reaction to the Crown’s decision to abandon the charges as “heartache.”

“To this day, it still bugs me … and it probably will bug me well beyond my days of retirement.”

Wiretapped calls included conversations with lawyers

The list of charges filed against Figliomeni and his associates were first unveiled by police during a high-profile press conference in 2019. They included money laundering, illegal gaming and fraud.

A recent investigation by the Star, OCCRP and La Repubblica revealed that Canadian banks had been allegedly infiltrated by the accused mob organization. Figliomeni and his associates were linked to at least three Canadian bankers, reporters found.

Figliomeni’s lawyer, Michael Lacy, said in an emailed response to questions: “Our client is neither participating nor commenting on your inquiries. You should draw nothing from his decision in that regard.”

During months of wrangling ahead of the planned trial, lawyers for the accused alleged the police had “investigative tunnel vision,” driven by preconceived ideas that the accused were mobsters.

Among the 1.5 million wiretapped communications police gathered during the investigation were conversations between suspects and their lawyers. Accessing those privileged calls amounted to an illegal infringement of privacy, the defence argued.

York’s Deputy Chief Alvaro Almeida, who previously led the force’s organized crime division, said the service continues to stand firmly behind the investigation and that it should have gone to court.

“It’s like preparing for the Olympics and never hitting the track. That’s how bad this is.”

‘It just smacks of armchair quarterbacking’

Prior to staying the charges in 2021, the Crown called for an independent review of the YRP’s investigation, to be conducted by a Toronto Police Service investigator. That report has never been released. Neither the Crown or YRP would provide reporters with a copy.

Adam Boni, a senior Toronto criminal lawyer and former federal Crown prosecutor, called the York Regional officers’ criticisms “hard to swallow.”

“These decisions to stay proceedings because of error, carelessness or downright dishonesty, these are decisions that are not lightly made,” says Boni, who was not involved in Project Sindicato but who has handled many organized crime cases in his 30-year career.

“When a Crown chooses, after the expenditure of incredible amounts of money, not to proceed with an organized crime case, the allegations had to be extremely serious … It just smacks of armchair quarterbacking now to say, ‘well, you know, we could have or we should have proceeded.’

“It’s unfair to the Crown, quite honestly.”

Wiretap surveillance is a particularly invasive investigative tool that “impinges significantly on personal privacy,” he says. “When you conduct an investigation that’s so broad, so sweeping … inevitably mistakes are made by the police.”

Sgt. Carl Mattinen, a lead investigator in Project Sindacato, was also in the meeting with Slack when the case officially fell apart — a decision that landed suddenly after months of positive reassurance, he says.

“I can tell you, every meeting we had to discuss where we are, next steps, disclosure, everyone was very confident this was a successful case,” he says. “You’re pissed off that your hard work isn’t going to be seen for what it’s worth. It doesn’t matter that it would have either succeeded or collapsed come judgment time. The point is, we never got to see that.”

Slack, who has since retired from the force, says one of the greatest frustrations was knowing the impact that a full prosecution might have had on public safety.

“We (had) years of intelligence that supports (Figliomeni and his associates) as being part of a criminal organization,” he says. “(I was) just feeling sick about how this impacts on the community. This individual will once again not be held accountable with everything that’s happening in the region of York and outside.”

Canada’s challenge prosecuting organized crime

The episode also highlights problems Canada has in prosecuting organized crime groups.

Stephen Schneider, a criminology professor at St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, said Italian authorities are “frustrated” by the fact that alleged members of ’Ndrangheta — a violent and secretive organization with tentacles stretching across the globe from its base in southern Italy — have found security in Canada, but there’s little they can do.

“There’s just case after case of offenders who would otherwise be in jail in the United States or Italy that are roaming free here,” said Schneider, the author of “Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada.”

Figliomeni is considered a fugitive in Italy, where he also has a conviction on weapons charges and was charged with “mafia association.” But he is safe in Canada, where the Italian criminal charge is not an extraditable offence. In fact, it doesn’t even exist.

Vittorio Rizzi, a deputy director general of Italy’s Public Security Department, said inconsistencies in laws between countries challenge international efforts to combat the ’Ndrangheta.

“The misalignment of legal systems is a constant in co-operation activity,” said Rizzi, who leads an initiative against the ’Ndrangheta involving law enforcement in 18 countries, including Canada.

The collapse of Sindacato added to a long list of Canada’s failed efforts to prosecute organized crime. A recent report blames this on case law that established liberal rules around what prosecutors must share with defence lawyers and a 30-month limit on how long prosecutors have to bring cases before the superior court.

Those rules make it “virtually impossible to prosecute certain criminal and threat convergence cases in Canada,” according to a Nov. 2023 report by the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

“Canada has become a safe zone for the world’s most notorious crime groups and threat networks that are harming Canada’s national security and imperiling the security of other nations.”

Calvin Chrustie, a retired RCMP organized crime investigator and co-author of the report, says Canadian disclosure rules are far broader than those in comparable Western countries and risk revealing police investigative methods to those allegedly committing crime.

“The demands of Canadian case law … far exceed the U.S., Australia, the U.K, and other countries’ requirements to disclose sensitive information,” he said in an interview. “The Canadian security intelligence apparatus, inclusive of the police, does not have the same protections and the same benefits that our international partners have when it comes down to investigating transnational organized crime threats.”

— with files from OCCRP