zombola
12-18-2014, 02:49 PM
Climbing the Mafia ladder: Accused Ontario mobster named a wanted fugitive after boss murdered in Sicily
http://s17.postimg.org/tor7g0by7/daniele_ranieri1.jpg
Why, Pete? Why?”
Sprawled across the front seat of a rental car in a ramshackle construction yard in Sicily and bleeding from a dozen bullet wounds, Juan Ramon Fernandez did not beg for his life or cry or shout or pray. A perfect gangster knows when and how he is going to die. He spent his final breath only voicing surprise at who was standing over him.
“Why, Pete? Why?”
The retort from the gunman at the open car door, nursing an injury of his own from the frantic ambush, was to lift his pistol once more, aim at Fernandez’s head and fire a finishing round.
Fernandez did not learn the answer to his question that spring night in 2013 but a court in Palermo is now filling in the blanks.
The vicious cycle of gangland life is perfectly told in the muscular, tattooed form of Daniele Ranieri, named Wednesday by Canadian police as a wanted fugitive: he took his place as a police target after the murder in Sicily of his crime boss, a killer who, in turn, replaced a hulking mobster publicly gunned down in Toronto.
The deadly path to leadership of a mob-backed crew hardly deters men like Ranieri, who was so enamoured of the underworld he had “Cosa Nostra” tattooed on his chest.
“In their world, being killed is not an abnormality. Eventually these guys meet their demise, they play a high stakes game,” said Insp. Dieter Boeheim of York Regional Police intelligence bureau.
“He lives in that world, the world of The Godfather. Some of the guys need to get their hands dirty to progress.”
Tuesday, when police raided six premises in Project Forza, the Italian word for “strength,” their prime target was not found: Ranieri had left for Cuba two weeks before and is believed to still be there. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, and police consider him “armed and dangerous.”
Ranieri, 30, of Bolton, Ont., was featured in a lengthy National Post exposé in October about the murder in Sicily of two mobsters from Canada. It was his visit to Sicily on July 6, 2012, that inadvertently revealed Juan Ramon Fernandez, allegedly Ranieri’s boss, had moved there from Canada, sparking a large anti-Mafia probe.
Ranieri was under surveillance the moment he got off the plane in Palermo, with an officer in Sicily saying he stood out: “Typical of American gangsters — big muscles and tattoos.”
Police say Ranieri took over leadership of the crew from Fernandez, after he was ambushed and his body burned outside Palermo in April 2013. Fernandez, in turn, had seized control from Gaetano “Guy” Panepinto, a mobster who ran a discount coffin business before his own murder in 2000.
yahoo.com
http://s17.postimg.org/tor7g0by7/daniele_ranieri1.jpg
Why, Pete? Why?”
Sprawled across the front seat of a rental car in a ramshackle construction yard in Sicily and bleeding from a dozen bullet wounds, Juan Ramon Fernandez did not beg for his life or cry or shout or pray. A perfect gangster knows when and how he is going to die. He spent his final breath only voicing surprise at who was standing over him.
“Why, Pete? Why?”
The retort from the gunman at the open car door, nursing an injury of his own from the frantic ambush, was to lift his pistol once more, aim at Fernandez’s head and fire a finishing round.
Fernandez did not learn the answer to his question that spring night in 2013 but a court in Palermo is now filling in the blanks.
The vicious cycle of gangland life is perfectly told in the muscular, tattooed form of Daniele Ranieri, named Wednesday by Canadian police as a wanted fugitive: he took his place as a police target after the murder in Sicily of his crime boss, a killer who, in turn, replaced a hulking mobster publicly gunned down in Toronto.
The deadly path to leadership of a mob-backed crew hardly deters men like Ranieri, who was so enamoured of the underworld he had “Cosa Nostra” tattooed on his chest.
“In their world, being killed is not an abnormality. Eventually these guys meet their demise, they play a high stakes game,” said Insp. Dieter Boeheim of York Regional Police intelligence bureau.
“He lives in that world, the world of The Godfather. Some of the guys need to get their hands dirty to progress.”
Tuesday, when police raided six premises in Project Forza, the Italian word for “strength,” their prime target was not found: Ranieri had left for Cuba two weeks before and is believed to still be there. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, and police consider him “armed and dangerous.”
Ranieri, 30, of Bolton, Ont., was featured in a lengthy National Post exposé in October about the murder in Sicily of two mobsters from Canada. It was his visit to Sicily on July 6, 2012, that inadvertently revealed Juan Ramon Fernandez, allegedly Ranieri’s boss, had moved there from Canada, sparking a large anti-Mafia probe.
Ranieri was under surveillance the moment he got off the plane in Palermo, with an officer in Sicily saying he stood out: “Typical of American gangsters — big muscles and tattoos.”
Police say Ranieri took over leadership of the crew from Fernandez, after he was ambushed and his body burned outside Palermo in April 2013. Fernandez, in turn, had seized control from Gaetano “Guy” Panepinto, a mobster who ran a discount coffin business before his own murder in 2000.
yahoo.com