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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Okay, This Offends Me

I only clicked on this story because I like going to Toronto:

Mobsters around Toronto are on the brink of armed warfare in a brewing feud between some of the world’s most powerful and wealthiest gangster clans, according to wiretaps secretly recorded in Italy.

That's disturbing. I like to think that Canadians don't like to litter. But a mob war brewing? It once amused me that I was mistaken for an undercover cop by some street person schooling his younger colleagues. I'm not sure if that would be good or bad in a mob war scenario.

Ah, I'm rather older now so that probably isn't an issue anymore.

Still, since the story says that intra-clan tensions increased after a spring 2014 killing, could my unusual experience at the border in summer 2014 be related? Was the United States looking for people of interest going to Canada who might be trying to enter indirectly to avoid scrutiny?

I know. The dots are few. Well, two. And there is no reason to connect them. But something was odd.

But I digress (as I can!)

What offended me in the story was this part about the Italian anti-mafia operation:

Last month, dozens of accused mobsters were arrested in Europe as part of Operation Acero-Krupy — the very name demonstrating the Canadian connection: acero is Italian for “maple,” while Krupy is a purposeful misspelling of the name of a family under investigation.

In what alternate world of security do you telegraph the nature of your operation?

Nobody in Italy would figure that the Crupi family was really the target if they heard the police were involved in something big called Acero-Krupy, eh?

And nobody in the mob with connections to Canada would see through that "maple" reference, right? Or google it and scroll down a bit on the Wikipedia page.

I suppose I should be amazed that the operation snared anyone at all.

God help us all if Italy's military is equally sloppy with security.