'Brazen' murders in Vaughan spark call to action

YorkRegion.com
June 12, 2014
Jeremy Grimaldi

Vaughan’s deputy mayor has requested a police briefing on the recent spate of brazen killings that experts say are related to organized crime.

Deputy Mayor Gino Rosati said he plans to call York police Chief Eric Jolliffe in the hope a presentation will be delivered at an upcoming police services board meeting about the shootings that have left five people dead in Vaughan the past year.

“I am very concerned,” he said. “I will make a phone call and ask the police chief what is happening out there and what we’re doing to address it. Hopefully, information will be passed onto us. This is far more complex than what one municipality can do.”

His comments come days after York police released a photo to the media asking the suspect to turn himself in. The alleged hit man, David Odesho, 24, turned himself in to the Vaughan police station.

Odesho has now been charged with the killing of Sarhad Sadiq, 36, of Nobleton, and the attempted murder of another man, whose identity the police are not releasing.

In 2006, Sadiq was charged in a multi-million-dollar cocaine smuggling ring.

Sadiq, the man gunned down outside Baggio’s Cafe, on Woodstream Boulevard, near Martin Grove Road Road and Hwy. 7, also has a number of other charges listed at Newmarket courthouse.

His murder comes a month after Ritesh Thakur, 41, once charged in another multi-million dollar cocaine ring, was gunned down in front of Sunday shopping crowds at Home Sense, near Hwy. 7 and Weston Road.

Only days before that, Carmine Verduci, a reputed member of the ‘Ndrangheta, was shot to death outside another cafe, on Regina Road, also near Hwy. 7 and Martin Grove Road.

Last summer, the opening salvo to all the violence occurred when Sam Calautti, another suspected member of the ‘Ndrangheta, was shot to death in a BMW along with his associate, James Tusek.

While experts believe all the murders were organized crime-related, many remain unsure whether the past two shootings involving an Indian and an Assyrian man are linked to the mafia or not.

James Dubro, crime author and journalist, said the mafia uses countless crews and gangs of varying nationalities to execute its business.

“The business of organized crime and drugs, it’s not just the mafia,” he said. “We have a multicultural society, we have a multicultural drug trade. The traditional mafia will use anyone to get the product and traffic the product.”

However, he added while group’s paths may cross, understanding whether these most recent murders are linked to the Verduci or Calautti murders or the ongoing Montreal mafia war between the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, is near-impossible without more information.

“There are all sorts of crews in the underworld, they always find ways of working together or arguing with each other,” Dubro said. “The underworld mirrors the regular world, but everything going on in the underworld is covert, secret.”

Vaughan MP Julian Fantino, who is also a former chief of the York Regional Police, also expressed his concern over the shootings.

“Some of these are quite brazen,” he said. “I am not in a position to say what they (the police) need to look to, but I am sure they are doing everything that needs to be done. Everyone is concerned, but people can’t lose perspective that Vaughan and York Region is a safe place to live and raise a family.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said that he trusts the police 100 per cent to take the issue seriously and deal with it appropriately.

“The responsibility lies with the York Regional Police first and foremost, whom we work very well together with,” he said.

York police have since explained the injured party in the Sadiq murder has been released from hospital.

The force is currently searching the vehicle they suspect Odesho of driving at the time of the murder.

The white, four-door, 2012 Mazda 3 was discovered by a parking enforcement officer in the West end of Toronto on Tuesday.

A search warrant was sought by police shortly after.