UPDATE: Residents suggest exploded Woodbridge Cafe a gambling den

yorkregion.com
June 29, 2017
By Jeremy Grimaldi

It was around 5 a.m. that York police officers working in the area of Weston Road and Hwy. 7 found a male in rough shape, claiming to have been beaten up.

He had at least one broken limb and complained to officers about his injuries, a source close to the investigation told yorkregion.com.

When officers noticed the man also had burn marks, he was arrested in relation to a suspicious explosion that ripped through the side of Caffe Corretto, on Winges Road, near Hwy. 7 and Ainsley Grove.

It was only two streets away on Caster Avenue that Mila Barberi was gunned down in a hail of bullets in March 2017.

The scene is a dramatic one, three of the cafe's rooms are exposed and the side wall is blown out. A black, four-door BMW is buried under the rubble. Inside, everything is charred by flames: a television, tables and what appears to be multiple gaming machines.

York police have said officially that a male has been arrested and is in hospital being treated for non-life threatening injuries. None of the multiple groups of people surveying the scene wanted to speak on the record, but a few spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"It's an Italian cafe in the area, they have a couple slots, card playing, you can see a board, some sort of point system," one young man told yorkregion.com while surveying the scene. "They play Italian cards in there like Brisk (Briscola). It's a respectable cafe and I'm surprised to see this happen. I'm just glad it wasn't full at the time."

However, not everyone referred to the cafe as respectable. An employee from a neighbouring said his company has been in the area for decades and knows most business owners in the area, but not that of Caffe Corretto.

"It's been there for about eight years," he said. "We have seen a lot of cafes here, you just wonder how they pay the rent. It's unfortunate, but I'm not surprised."

He added that another cafe in the neighbouring building was blown up about 14 years ago.

Another person said one window had been covered with newspaper weeks prior to the explosion.

Vaughan has seen a string of incidents with possible links to organized crime. There were four shootings resulting in three deaths just months ago, prompting Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua to release a statement. However, looking back, the problem is much wider spread. In all there have been 12 murders in Vaughan since 2013.

A number of these incidents have occurred in or around cafes deemed illegal gambling dens by the police including Moka Cafe, where three people were shot and two people killed.

Italian Canadian mafia author Antonio Nicaso, said in the aftermath of the Moka shooting that gambling might be one reason for the increased violence, noting that the 'Ndrangheta are buying up cafes,bars and social clubs in a bid to corner the market on illegal gambling in York region.

"Gambling is a major issue right now," he told yorkregion.com in an interview in 2015.

Police believe the explosion is "suspicious."

The man, deemed a suspect, 33, had non-life threatening injuries and was taken to hospital, YRP Const. Laura Nicolle said.

The cafe had been on fire, said Nicolle, who added it appears nobody else was involved.

The Fire Marshal and Emergency Management are investigating the scene, said Nicolle.

She added police are appealing for witnesses and are canvassing for video in the area that may reveal what may have happened.

If you have information, contact York Regional Police at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7441.