He was born into an organized-crime family
in Calabria, Italy. A brother was murdered in a Mafia power struggle in
Calabria in 1975. Another brother was convicted of heroin trafficking
in Ontario in 1992, and sentenced to four years in prison. And he once
shot a man in the head, then smashed the dying man’s face with a crystal
ashtray.
Yet Rocco Zito, 87, who was shot dead in
his Toronto home on Friday afternoon, made very little public mark,
except in the Calabrian Mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta – in which he
was respected and feared, and where he made his livelihood – and in
police intelligence circles, where he was monitored for decades.
“I
can assure you Rocco Zito is absolutely no loss,” retired RCMP
staff-sergeant Larry Tronstad told The Globe and Mail. Mr. Tronstad was
part of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a Mafia tracking
team set up by the Mounties, the Ontario Provincial Police and Toronto
police.
“Listen,
he was a major Mafia guy. He was a violent man. If he couldn’t make
ends meet any other way, violence would do for him.”
Domenico
Scopelliti, 51, who is reportedly Mr. Zito’s son-in-law, turned himself
in to police just after midnight Saturday after a bulletin was issued
at 11:04 p.m. on Friday, saying that he was a suspect and was believed
to be armed and dangerous. He has been charged with first-degree murder.
Mr.
Tronstad said Mr. Zito was the unassuming opposite of the flamboyant
John Gotti, a New York Mafia kingpin who could be seen parading in front
of his club, surrounded by bodyguards and wearing an Armani suit. “If
that was one end of the scale and that was a 10, Rocco would be a 1.” He
lived in the gritty neighbourhood of Caledonia Road and Lawrence
Avenue.
Mr. Zito’s manslaughter
conviction in 1986 received little attention from most newspapers, with
the Toronto Star describing him as a “North York grandfather” and a
ceramic tile salesman. He had been charged with second-degree murder in
the shooting death of a former photo-studio owner, Rosario Sciarrino,
60, who had borrowed money from him, believed to be in the $20,000
range.
“He shot him and then took a
crystal ashtray to his face and just pulverized his face,” Mr. Tronstad
said. “Loan sharks don’t normally kill people” because then they can’t
collect their debts, but “he just killed him in a rage.”
After
hiding out for four days, Mr. Zito negotiated a plea deal, which the
judge accepted, stipulating that the only witness said Mr. Sciarrino had
provoked Mr. Zito by asking him to step outside to see who would kill
whom. Mr. Zito had a small bullet wound in his thigh that some suspected
was self-inflicted.
The ’Ndrangheta is
the richest and most active and powerful syndicate in Europe,
overshadowing the Sicilian Mafia, known as the Cosa Nostra. It has
branches in Canada, the U.S., Australia and South America, and makes 60
per cent of its annual revenue of €44-billion ($66-billion Canadian)
from the cocaine trade, Canadian crime author Antonio Nicaso said,
citing a report by Eurispes, an Italian think tank.
In
Ontario, it is heavily into money laundering, Mr. Nicaso said in an
interview. “It’s the most powerful criminal syndicate in Ontario.”
A police intelligence report said Mr. Zito was on the original Camera di Controllo
(board of control) of the ’Ndrangheta in Ontario in 1962, alongside
mobsters who went on to be much more widely known, such as Michele
Racco, who died in 1980, and for whom Mr. Zito served as a pallbearer.
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