 | A Mafia fugitive from Italy — named as the axis of a powerful mob clan in Canada, Italy and the Netherlands — was arrested Friday as he tried to board an airplane in Brazil. Vincenzo Macri, 53, is wanted in Italy for drug trafficking and other charges after he escaped arrest in 2015 during a large police probe targeting the underworld “elite” — some of the world’s strongest and wealthiest Mafia clans. Operation Acero-Krupy, brought the arrest of more than 50 alleged mafiosi in Italy and warrants against a dozen men living in Canada. Macri, however, escaped the dragnet. He was living in Holland at the time. |  |
 | Macri organized the internal affairs of the Mafia, gathering and transmitting important information between Italy, Canada and Holland.
The clan was sometimes called The Siderno Group because of roots to the area around Siderno, on the eastern coast of southern Italy in Calabria. The accused man’s father was legendary Mafia boss Antonio Macri, who was killed in an ambush in 1975. The elder Macri was called “the Boss of Two Worlds” because he forged links between his homeland and North America. The Macri clan had a great impact on the history of Canada’s underworld. Antonio Macri’s friend, Michele “Mike” Racco, came to Canada from Siderno in 1952 and ran the Canadian arm of Macri’s organization. With Macri’s backing Racco became a leading underworld figure. Over time, the Canadian connection became crucial to the ‘Ndrangheta’s rise as leading drug traffickers. |  |
 | Inter-clan friction in Canada sharply increased after the 2014 murder of feared hitman Carmine Verduci. Verduci, 56, was an important mobster in the Toronto area until he was shot dead in April 2014. Crupi spoke directly about Verduci’s still-unsolved murder; Crupi called it an “assassination,” and alleged it was “planned and determined”. Most believe Vito Rizzuto was bent on revenge against at least a half dozen GTA mobsters, and that Verduci's execution was a message to his old associates in the underworld. |  |
