HA Robert Barletta has same problem as Scarface - cash

A condo in Yorkville was used as a stash house for $5m in cash. Photos showed multiple people carrying shopping bags night and day. A successful criminal operation generates more dirty cash than people know what to do with. A cop explains.

“You end up with this pitfall of cash. You think of Scarface – he had cash in garbage bags. His biggest complaint: what do we do with all this cash?" Robert Barletta, Craig 'Truck' McIlquham

The sports betting operation was surveilled and infiltrated by cop rats in what became known as Project Hobart. The OPP held a news conference Dec 2019 to crow about 228 charges from their two-year probe of an illegal gambling ring run by HAMC and mafioso. Charges flopped miserably.

Cops describe a pyramid with hundreds of agents at various levels who were assigned code names and solicited bets, took commissions and passed a cut up. At the top were Robert Barletta of the Montreal Chapter and Craig McIlquham of the Niagara Chapter. Collection was "enforced through violence.” Barletta and McIlquham met with Hansley Joseph and Salvatore Cazzetta to “remove between $3 and $5 million in cash obtained from the illegal gaming operation from the 18 Yorkville Stash house.” Michael Deabaitua-Schulde was being watched by cops when he was whacked outside a Mississauga gym. That unsolved murder is said to be an internal matter.

Hansley Joseph

While the boys walked on criminal charges, civil forfeiture is on the hunt for proceeds of crime from their $160m operation. 14 websites brought in that amount over 6 years. McIlquham, 51, hid his loot in secret locations. In a hidden trap at his Toronto condo, cops found $40k in Canadian cash, $1,800 in US cash, a Brazilian visa in his name and ID with his photo but another man’s name. One of his vehicles in the underground parking lot returned $11k, a gun and a cellphone with evidence of bookmaking. From another vehicle cops seized a gold bar worth $206k. At another of his properties, cops found 27, 1 ounce gold coins in a black satin Louis Vuitton bag.

Most of the assets sought are real estate, many of them luxury homes. Parking dirty money in real estate has long been a preferred way to launder money in Canada.

See ----->HA Robert Barletta ensnared in dueling lawsuits
See ----->Michael Deabaitua-Schulde murder trial over