Vincenzo DeMaria

Vincenzo "Jimmy" DeMaria (Italian: [vinˈtʃɛntso demaˈriːa]; born 1954) is an alleged Italian-Canadian mob boss and businessman originally from Calabria, Italy now based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. According to news reports, DeMaria was named in a 2010 Italian police report as one of the top GTA leaders in the 'Ndrangheta's Siderno Group.[1] He also had a seat on the Camera di Controllo.[2][3]

In May 2019, however, a Federal Court decision stated that police had not provided evidence to confirm that he was a "member of ’Ndrangheta"; while the Court agreed that there was "strong suspicion" that he was a mobster, this was "not backed by hard evidence".[4]

As of early April 2020, DeMaria was still incarcerated as a result of a 1982 conviction for second-degree murder which carried a life sentence. He was allegedly continuing a connection with "Mafia activity" according to the Parole Board of Canada which subsequently granted him day parole but with the condition that he provide documented financial data. A year earlier, the plan to deport him to Italy failed after DeMaria successfully appealed to the Federal Court of Canada.[5]

Early life and conviction of murder

DeMaria was born in Siderno, Calabria, Italy in 1954, and immigrated to Canada with his family in January 1955 at nine months old.[1][3]

On September 20, 1982, DeMaria was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting Vincenzo Figliomeni, a man who owed him a $2,000 debt, behind a fruit market in Little Italy on April 22, 1981.[1][6][3] At his trial, he said he had acted in self-defence, but evidence showed his victim was shot seven times in the back.[6] For the murder, DeMaria was sentenced to 10 years, and served time in Millhaven maximum-security prison in Kingston and a medium-security prison in Joyceville.[1][3] In 1985, DeMaria had filed a lawsuit after he was transferred back to a maximum-security prison based on a suspicion he smuggled cyanide into prison. When he faced no discipline or charge, and no cyanide was ever found, he took the warden to court and won a transfer back to medium-security.[6] On another occasion in 1987, DeMaria was transferred to Millhaven from Joyceville after calling the office of then-Toronto MP John Nunziata about the prison conditions.[1] He again took the prison to court and forced a reversal of his transfer and a judicial rebuke against the warden.[6]

DeMaria was granted day parole in 1990 and full parole in 1992, for life.[6][3] The parole was subsequently rescinded.[7]

Constant parole hearings

In the 2000 murder of Gaetano "Guy" Panepinto in Toronto, allegedly executed by Salvatore Calautti, DeMaria was described in a 2009 police intelligence report as an "accomplice in the 2000 murder of Gaetano Panepinto."[8]

DeMaria has worked as a baker and operated a financial services company, Invicta Financial.[1] On April 20, 2009, DeMaria was arrested at Invicta Financial on a parole violation, and was sent back to jail for consorting with mafia associates and violating the conditions of his release.[1][9] Photographs of Toronto mobster Carmine Verduci meeting with DeMaria on October 2, 2008, were used at DeMaria’s parole hearing to justify placing tighter parole restrictions on him.[10]

On November 14, 2013, DeMaria was arrested again when the province's Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement Squad arrested him at his Mississauga home.[6] Based on "reliable and persuasive" information "provided by numerous police agencies," the parole board found he had violated parole conditions that prohibit him from associating with anyone known to be involved in crime.[6] The board found he breached that condition when he attended two family weddings, one on February 25, 2012, and the other on June 23, 2012; one of which was Angelo Musitano's wedding of the Hamilton Musitano crime family.[6] The board revoked his parole on June 18, 2014, declaring him an "undue risk to public safety." He appealed the decision to the board's appeal division, which upheld it, and then appealed to the Federal Court of Canada.[6] DeMaria complained he was not given details of the allegations made against him by police; that he was refused a third postponement of his hearing; and his request for an oral hearing was denied.[6] Judge Catherine Kane agreed the board was not procedurally fair to DeMaria when it denied him an oral hearing to respond to the police allegations and to address the credibility of the findings against him.[6]

In July 2014, DeMaria's son, Carlo, owner of the Cash House, faced 10 charges, including fabricating evidence, identity theft, laundering the proceeds of crime and possession of property obtained by crime.[9]

In April 2018, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) issued a deportation order for DeMaria.[3] DeMaria once again appealed to the Federal Court of Canada; Judge James Russell issued a 65-page decision on April 18, 2019, weighing the arguments and the evidence which he considered to be "tenuous evidence, to say the least", overturning the IRB deportation order. The judge found that police had not provided evidence that DeMaria was a member of ’Ndrangheta. Nonetheless, DeMaria remained in prison since his parole had previously been revoked.[7]

On August 9, 2019, several former Greater Toronto Area residents were arrested in Calabria, including DeMaria's brother, Giuseppe.[11][12]

On April 27, 2020, the Parole Board of Canada recognized DeMaria's model behaviour while incarcerated and his "chronic kidney issues" which required regular visits to a specialist. It granted him day parole but required that he provide documented financial information. The issue of possible deportation was raised again by the Canada Border Services Agency but the hearing was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[5]

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References
  1. "Convicted killer Jimmy DeMaria arrested for parole breach". thestar.com. 27 November 2013.
  2. Police lose track of alleged soldier in the mob, until Canadian Tire tussle, National Post, February 17, 2011
  3. "WHEN COPS CAN'T CONVICT A 'TOP MAFIA BOSS,' THEY TURN TO DESPERATE MEASURES". National Post. 1 May 2018. In a 2010 report for a court in Italy, Italian investigators said Toronto’s ’Ndrangheta had climbed “to the top of the criminal world” with an “an unbreakable umbilical cord” to their hometowns in Calabria. That same report named DeMaria as one of seven senior ’Ndrangheta bosses here and as a member of its board of directors, called the Camera di Controllo.
  4. "Teflon Don of Canada dodges deportation to Italy as federal court overturns IRB order". Post Media. 9 May 2020.
  5. "Deportation of convicted killer to Italy halted over COVID-19 concerns". Thestar.com. 27 April 2020.
  6. "Alleged Toronto Mafia boss wins new parole hearing in latest appeal to courts". nationalpost.com. 16 January 2017.
  7. "Teflon Don of Canada dodges deportation to Italy as federal court overturns IRB order". nationalpost.com. 9 May 2019.
  8. "From the Archive: Toronto killings linked to Montreal mob". montrealgazette. 23 December 2013.
  9. "Son of suspected Ontario Mafia boss charged after police fraud investigation". nationalpost.com. 25 July 2014.
  10. "Carmine Verduci — the man who exposed Mafia's 'Canadian cell' — was gunned down near Toronto yesterday". nationalpost.com. 25 April 2014.
  11. "Several GTA residents arrested in Italy following Mafia sweep". thestar.com. 9 August 2019.
  12. "Italian Mafia boss visiting Canada unwittingly carried a police wiretap to his meetings". nationalpost.com. 11 August 2019.
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