Alfonso Caruana - Mafia Career

Mafia Career

In 1968 Alfonso Caruana arrived in Canada with $100 in his pocket pretending to be an electrician. Ten years later he was stopped at the international airport of Zürich in Switzerland with $600,000 in a suitcase. He was released after paying a fee.

In the 1970s Caruana, together with is brothers Gerlando Caruana and Pasquale Caruana had to leave Montreal for Caracas in Venezuela because of a conflict with the Cotroni crime family. They returned in 1978 after the boss of the Cotroni-family, Paolo Violi, was killed.

At the beginning of the 1980s Alfonso established himself near Lugano in a luxurious villa, supervising the laundering of the proceeds of heroin-trafficking. The funds were deposited in Canadian banks and channelled through Swiss bank accounts. Two years later he moved to the stockbroker belt near London. From his £450,000 mansion, he supervised a heroin pipeline from Thailand, through England, to Canada. His partner in the UK was Francesco Di Carlo. Caruana went to Thailand to set up the route. When the pipeline was dismantled in England in 1985, he managed to escape arrest, moving back to a Montreal suburb where he opened a pizzeria. Alfonso prepared the pizzas while his wife tended the pay-desk.

According to Di Carlo, who became a pentito (state witness) in 1996, Caruana was sentenced to death by the high council of the Mafia after he had fallen out of favour. Di Carlo was ordered to carry out the killing, but refused and in doing so saved Caruana's life.