Champion - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T07:12:36Z
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Drug dealer who impersonated MMA champion Conor McGregor jailed
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/drug-dealer-who-impersonated-mma-champion-conor-mcgregor-jailed
2021-04-26T10:00:00.000Z
2021-04-26T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-dealer-who-impersonated-mma-champion-conor-mcgregor-jailed" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237160083,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237160083?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Some guys just don’t get it. When you’re involved in crime it is best to keep a low profile. It is a bad idea to impersonate the most famous Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion on the planet and hand out business cards with his name on them while dealing drugs. Yet, here we are.</p>
<p>As you can see by looking at his mugshot, Mark Nye does resemble an ageing <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=McGregor" target="_blank">Conor McGregor</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UFC" target="_blank">UFC</a> champion who made hundreds of millions in both <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=MMA" target="_blank">MMA</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boxing" target="_blank">boxing</a>. But the 34-year-old look-a-like from Surrey, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=England" target="_blank">England</a>, upped the ante when he handed his drug clients business cards with the name “McGregor Enterprise” written on the front and “Best drops in Surrey” on the back.</p>
<p>You won’t see Nye doing his impersonation on the road anytime soon. He’s been sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison for drug trafficking.</p>
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UFC champion Conor McGregor’s fascination with gangsters
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ufc-champion-conor-mcgregor-s-fascination-with-gangsters
2016-09-15T10:00:00.000Z
2016-09-15T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ufc-champion-conor-mcgregor-s-fascination-with-gangsters"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237070854,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237070854?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>UFC champion Conor McGregor is one of the best fighters on the planet. A man who talks a big game and backs it up with his fists. Going by the nickname “The Notorious,” McGregor likes to use references to gangster culture to get his points across. Where does his fascination with gangsters come from? And what about his links to real mobsters in his home country of Ireland?</p>
<p>As he rose to prominence in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UFC">UFC</a>) the premier organization in Mixed Martial Arts (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=MMA">MMA</a>), McGregor vowed to “not just take part” in the fight game, but “to take over.”</p>
<p>He’s kept his promise, knocking out UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo – a man who was undefeated for over a decade – in just 13 seconds and breaking pay-per-view records with each event he headlined.</p>
<p>Throughout his fight career, McGregor has made frequent references to gangster culture. Either by imitating the lifestyle and appearance or labeling his opponents in a degrading way, as he did with Nate Diaz, who he called a “little cholo gangster from the hood.”</p>
<p>But, he added, “At the same time he coaches kids’ jiu-jitsu on a Sunday morning and goes on bike rides with the elderly. He makes gang signs with the right hand and animal balloons with the left hand. You’re a credit to the community.”</p>
<p>If Diaz is a “cholo gangster from the hood” then McGregor is a globetrotting gangster. As <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thenotoriousmma/" target="_blank">his Instagram account</a> shows, McGregor takes a little something from everyone. Even from the Mexican style he accused Diaz of.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237070890,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237070890?profile=original" /></a>When he faced off (then) UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos in January of this year, McGregor could be seen wearing a blouse of the same style as that of Mexican drug lord <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mexican-drug-lord-el-chapo-guzman-breaks-out-of-prison">Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman</a>. For those missing the reference, McGregor even made it obvious by posing the same way as El Chapo did in his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/what-was-sean-penn-s-role-in-the-capture-of-el-chapo">photo</a> with actor <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/what-was-sean-penn-s-role-in-the-capture-of-el-chapo">Sean Penn</a> after their infamous interview for Rolling Stone magazine.</p>
<p>And for those who were still in the dark as to what just occurred, McGregor made it crystal clear on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thenotoriousmma/" target="_blank">his Instagram page</a> where he shared photos of the face-off with the captions “El Chapo Jr.” and “Keeping up with the Guzmans.”</p>
<p>Besides being well-versed in the ways of Mexican gang and narco culture, he also knows his pop culture. He can be seen posing in his bathrobe underneath a chandelier holding a large gun. He captioned the photo: “You need people like me,” a reference to the line from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Scarface">Scarface</a>, the movie about the rise and fall of a Cuban-American drug lord, starring <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Pacino">Al Pacino</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237070492,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237070492?profile=original" width="473" /></a>For a man like McGregor, gangsters set the bar when it comes to dominating a business by any means necessary. It is clear why someone who claims to be here to “take over” the fight game likes their attitude and exhibits it when he can.</p>
<p>He even merged his comment with the gangster example in the photo below that he shared on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thenotoriousmma/" target="_blank">his Instagram</a> with the caption: “Put the fight game in the bag and step away from the vehicle.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237071689,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237071689?profile=original" width="467" /></a>Fighters and gangsters have had a strong bond ever since the inception of the sport. Whether <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=News">boxers</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=MMA">MMA</a>-fighters doesn’t matter. Gangsters and fighters have circled each other, sharing a mutual respect for each other’s power.</p>
<p>Also, they offer each other business opportunities.</p>
<p>Many mob bosses look for new talent to strengthen their ranks of enforcers and fighters are on the top of the draft list. Many of the sport’s most talented fighters have seen their careers derailed by criminal acts on behest of gangsters.</p>
<p>When you are making a few hundred bucks on one fight, the shady money can be very tempting. Especially when gangsters make it sound so easy. “You just have to stand there and look tough,” “Just carry this bag from point A to point B,” “Just slap this guy around a little bit.” Easy <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Money">money</a>, no worries.</p>
<p>Of course, there’s no such thing as easy money. Many fighters found out the hard way that despite their physical prowess and skills in the ring, they are not bulletproof.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237061501,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237061501?profile=original" /></a>With McGregor showing off the pop side of gangster culture, what about his alleged links to real gangsters in his home country of Ireland? Well, as with most fighters, the Dublin gym where McGregor trained was also frequented by several real life notorious gangland figures and their offspring. Several of them even traveled all the way to Las Vegas to support their countryman during his fight against Aldo.</p>
<p>Among the group was David Byrne, a career criminal and member of the gang headed by boss Christy Kinahan. Byrne and McGregor posed for a selfie at one point, which can be seen on the right. Byrne’s brother Liam is alleged to be a key player in the Kinahan gang involved in largescale drug and weapon smuggling.</p>
<p>David Byrne was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/man-shot-dead-at-dublin-boxing-bout-weigh-in" target="_blank">murdered</a> at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Dublin">Dublin</a> on February 5, 2016. As people mingled and the room buzzed with anticipation of the upcoming WBO lightweight title fight between homegrown hero Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio Jao Bento, four attackers, two of whom were disguised as members of an Irish Police Emergency Response Unit, armed with AK-47s, entered the room and fired shots. Their suspected target was the son of mob boss Kinahan, but he managed to survive, while Byrne was shot to death.</p>
<p>Jamie Kavanagh, the boxing great who’s weigh-in turned into a bloody crime scene, himself has lost his father and uncle to the same Dublin gang war. His dad was shot to death in September 2014 at an Irish bar in Marbella, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain">Spain</a>, while his uncle Paul was murdered in Dublin in March 2015.</p>
<p>Conor McGregor is friends with the Kavanaghs as well, having grown up with them in the same neighborhood in Dublin and trained with them at the same gyms. He was present at Paul Kavanaghs funeral and could be seen among the hundreds of mourners that showed up to pay their respects.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237072469,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237072469?profile=original" width="371" /></a>While McGregor may use gangster references to poke fun at a situation or as a way to show his dominance over the fight game, he is all too familiar with the deadly violence that accompanies that lifestyle. That is why, as far as gangland links go, McGregor’s are purely based on friendships with guys from the neighborhood who took a different path than the one he took himself.</p>
<p>McGregor and his boxing friend Jamie Kavanagh are role models. They both chose fighting as a way out. Rather than dealing drugs, they deal in punches and kicks. Instead of cold blooded murder, they punch their opponents into a short unconscious spell.</p>
<p>If that isn’t gangster, then what is?</p>
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“I shook up the world!” - How Muhammad Ali took the heavyweight boxing championship belt from the Mafia
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/i-shook-up-the-world-how-muhammad-ali-took-the-heavyweight-boxing
2016-06-06T09:00:00.000Z
2016-06-06T09:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-shook-up-the-world-how-muhammad-ali-took-the-heavyweight-boxing"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237064497,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237064497?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston was a bad man. Both in and out of the ring he struck fear in men, even in the greatest fighter in history, Muhammad Ali. When the two men faced off for their title fight on February 25, 1964, Ali admitted, “I was scared… It frightened me, just knowing how hard he hit.”</p>
<p>Just like many of his opponents, however, fear was no match for Ali. He went into his corner and waited for the bad man to come at him. In the next six rounds the 22-year-old outclassed Liston in every aspect of the game. When the bell was to ring for the start of the seventh round, Liston did not get up from his stool and Ali was crowned the new heavyweight champion of the world.</p>
<p>It was the start of a new era. The beginning of a legend. “I'm the greatest!” Ali yelled out. “I shook up the world.”</p>
<p>He shook up the world, indeed. In more ways than many people realized at the time. This wasn’t just the end of Liston’s reign as champion. It also marked the end of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mob">Italian Mafia</a>’s control over the heavyweight belt. For years, they owned “a piece” of Liston and thus a big slice of his multi-million dollar earnings as champion of the world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237065254,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237065254?profile=original" width="336" /></a>The main mobster behind Liston was Frankie Carbo, a feared hitman for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/murder-inc-earning-a-place-in-history">Murder Inc.</a> and member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese crime family</a> headed by Gaetano “Three-Finger Brown” Lucchese. After spending two decades as a murder machine for the mob, Carbo had enough and began focusing on a gentler racket: Boxing.</p>
<p>While the boxing world was inhabited by nothing but tough guys trained in the use of violence, they were no match for a menace like Carbo. Once he began managing fighters and fixing fights the world of boxing was never the same. Fighters, managers, and promoters all were threatened and beaten if they refused to play ball with the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mob">mob</a>.</p>
<p>By the mid-1940s, Carbo (left) decided who won, who lost, who went down in which round, and - most importantly – who fought for the world championship belt. A Boxing legend like Jake LaMotta even took a dive in his 1947 bout against Billy Fox on orders of his mob “handler.” A few years later, Carbo got LaMotta a title fight.</p>
<p>The Mafia was always an expert in when to take away and when to give a little back. It went a long way in the eyes of the victims.</p>
<p>By the 1950s, politicians had enough of the rich hoodlums controlling virtually every aspect of American life. Investigative committees and taskforces were set up, the FBI ramped up its battle against organized crime, and slowly but surely some big names went down, including Frankie Carbo.</p>
<p>First they got him on managing fighters without a license – a charge that seemed surprisingly tame, much like murderous mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/photo/albums/al-capone">Al Capone</a> going to prison for tax evasion. Carbo received two years behind bars. When he was released, he was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate committee investigating the influence of organized crime in boxing. Like any mobster worth his salt, Carbo pleaded the fifth amendment – a total of 25 times.</p>
<p>By 1961, the government had a strong enough case to bring him down for good. U.S. Attorney <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-kennedy-s-whiskey-barons-in-the-white-house">Robert “Bobby” Kennedy</a> nailed Carbo on charges of conspiracy and extortion against boxing champion Don Jordan. After a lengthy trial, Carbo was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in Alcatraz.</p>
<p>Due to ill health, the Mafia hitman-turned-boxing fixer was granted an early parole. He died in Florida in 1976.</p>
<p>When Muhammad Ali became the new heavyweight champion of the world it was the first time in a long time that the Italian Mafia held no control over the new “King.” Yet, though <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">La Cosa Nostra</a> may not have had a piece of this champion, another emerging powerful group had already rallied behind the budding superstar. Still known as Cassius Clay when he won the belt, this group renamed him Muhammad Ali a short time later.</p>
<p>This group, the Nation of Islam, fought for civil rights for African-Americans and saw Ali as the perfect posterchild. They, in turn, were of significant importance to Ali as well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237065079,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237065079?profile=original" width="600" /></a>“Ali had seen how fighters before him had been sponsored, managed, and exploited by Mafia thugs,” David Remnick writes in <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-outsized-life-of-muhammad-ali?mbid=social_twitter" target="_blank">The New Yorker</a>. “He remembered from childhood how Joe Louis’s handlers gave him a set of rules to avoid alienating white America.”</p>
<p>Ali refused to go down like that. If he was going to become a boxing superstar he needed to do it his way. To achieve that, he needed a little help. The Nation of Islam provided Ali with the type of muscle he himself lacked.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237066078,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237066078?profile=original" width="207" /></a>“Ali understood strength,” Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, Ali’s corner man and personal physician, explained. “Just like Sonny Liston understood the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Mafia</a>, Ali understood that you did not fuck with the [Black] Muslims. He liked their strength.”</p>
<p>Their strength saw to it that Ali was paid good money for all his fights. Many of the promoters who were used to skimming a bit off a fighter’s purse and divvying it up with the mob, now faced the wrath of the Nation of Islam if they tried pulling such a stunt with Ali.</p>
<p>But while joining the Nation of Islam, Dr. Pacheco added, “[Ali] turned his head away from the fact that, especially in those early days, the nation was filled with a lot of ex-cons, violent people who would go after you if you crossed them.”</p>
<p>Indeed. Despite their noble cause, the Nation of Islam also enjoyed close links to many African-American gangsters and crime groups. One of Ali’s closest confidants, Jeremiah Shabazz, was minister of Mosque No. 12 of the Philadelphia Nation of Islam. This branch was “strongly connected with the crime syndicate known as the Black Mafia.” According to the <a href="http://articles.philly.com/1998-01-09/news/25748818_1_cassius-clay-ali-aide-nation-of-islam-minister" target="_blank">Philadelphia Inquirer</a>, “The mosque was […] reputed to be a center of criminal activity, with many of its leaders connected to murder, extortion, drug dealing, bank fraud and other crimes.”</p>
<p>Philadelphia’s Black Mafia quickly lived up to its nickname, becoming the equivalent of its Italian-American counterpart on the streets of Philly. Starting out as a crew of violent robbers and drug dealers, they expanded into other areas like gambling and prostitution. They also began taxing other criminals operating on their turf.</p>
<p>They achieved all this by partnering with the Nation of Islam, which by 1969 had around 10,000 Black Muslims operating in Philadelphia. “Faced with a turf war they would undoubtedly lose, the Black Mafia opted to become, in essence, the extortion arm of [Mosque No. 12],” author Sean Patrick Griffin writes in <em>Black Brothers Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia</em>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237066477,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237066477?profile=original" width="185" /></a>Black Mafia boss Samuel Christian (right) and several others had already joined the Nation of Islam, making the ‘merger’ between the two groups a mere formality, Griffin writes. This is evident especially considering the meteoric rise of some of the Black Mafia members after the partnership.</p>
<p>“Sam Christian was immediately made a captain in the Fruit of Islam [the Nation’s enforcement wing],” Griffin adds. “He would be responsible for sanctioning murders and other criminal acts, and reported directly to Jeremiah Shabazz.”</p>
<p>The Nation of Islam connected <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Philadelphia’s Black Mafia with gangsters in Chicago</a> and vice versa. Drug lord <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-boss-frank-matthews">Frank Matthews</a> made sure every group was supplied with drugs – replacing the Italian Mafia as the main distributor. A portion of the profits of this drug empire went straight into the Nation of Islam’s coffers.</p>
<p>Law enforcement was left stunned. With the civil rights movement spreading across the country, unrest in many major cities growing, they had no clue how to deal with the Nation of Islam. The militant Black Muslims were different. Though it was obvious the they had many prominent gangsters within their ranks, it was difficult to go after them because of their membership in the Nation.</p>
<p>Finding witnesses was also next to impossible. Griffin: “Victims and witnesses generally would not testify against either group prior to the merger; now, the prospect of facing in court one of a 200-strong criminal super group of ‘hardened street soldiers’ was even more frightening.”</p>
<p>In 1975 Ali left the Nation of Islam and converted to mainstream Sunni Islam. He did so, he wrote in his autobiography, because of the death of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.</p>
<p>Ali, the greatest boxer to ever put on a pair of gloves, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984 as a direct result of his boxing career. He died on June 3, 2016, at age 74.</p>
<p>Black Mafia founder and leader <a href="http://www.phillymag.com/articles/requiem-for-a-gangster/" target="_blank">Samuel Christian</a> died of natural causes on March 6, 2016, at age 76.</p>
<p>Mosque No. 12 leader <a href="http://articles.philly.com/1998-01-09/news/25748818_1_cassius-clay-ali-aide-nation-of-islam-minister" target="_blank">Jeremiah Shabazz</a> passed away in 1998 at age 70.</p>
<p>Former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston died at his Las Vegas home from an apparent heroin overdose on December 30, 1970. Though foul play was suspected, none was ever proven.</p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Black organized crime</a> section on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Selfie: UFC champ Conor McGregor’s link to slain Irish gangster
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/selfie-ufc-champ-conor-mcgregor-s-link-to-slain-irish-gangster
2016-02-22T20:00:00.000Z
2016-02-22T20:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/selfie-ufc-champ-conor-mcgregor-s-link-to-slain-irish-gangster"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237061501,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237061501?profile=original" width="395" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Conor McGregor’s nickname may be “The Notorious” but that’s because the UFC champion has a big mouth and is an impressive fighter, not because he has strong links to organized crime.</p>
<p>Talk about McGregor’s links to the underworld comes at the heels of the killing of Irish gangster David Byrne, who was murdered by hitmen at the weigh-in of a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-shook-up-the-world-how-muhammad-ali-took-the-heavyweight-boxing">boxing</a> event at the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/man-shot-dead-at-dublin-boxing-bout-weigh-in" target="_blank">Regency Hotel</a> in Dublin on February 5.</p>
<p>The above photo shows McGregor and Byrne taking a selfie picture together.</p>
<p>Byrne and McGregor had trained together at Crumlin Boxing Club and Byrne is rumored to have traveled to Las Vegas to attend McGregor’s fight against Jose Aldo, but McGregor’s coaches are adamant that both men are not very close. They say it was just a “<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/conor-mcgregor-and-slain-gangster-david-byrne-had-only-a-club-relationship-coach-34473637.html" target="_blank">club relationship</a>” and that the selfie was one of many selfies McGregor would take during a day surrounded by fans.</p>
<p>It’s not the first time a UFC champion’s alleged links to organized crime dominate the headlines. Two years ago, UFC legend Georges St. Pierre <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-canadian-connection-flooding-the-u-s-with-dope">wrote a letter</a> to a judge in support of his friend, convicted Canadian drug boss Jimmy Cournoyer.</p>
<p>And British MMA fighter <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangster-turned-cage-fighter-lee-murray">Lee Murray</a> is currently doing time in a Moroccan prison for the largest cash robbery ever committed in the United Kingdom.</p>
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The Canadian Connection: Flooding the U.S. with dope
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-canadian-connection-flooding-the-u-s-with-dope
2014-10-16T11:17:30.000Z
2014-10-16T11:17:30.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-canadian-connection-flooding-the-u-s-with-dope"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237042875,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237042875?profile=original" width="520" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Until authorities took it down, the Bonanno crime family in New York, the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, and the Rizzuto clan and Hells Angels in Montreal ran one hell of a lucrative drug pipeline. One that made its participants hundreds of millions of dollars and gave legions of drug users their fix. Nothing new there really. However, where the pipeline was usually run by the American mob this one was run from Canada, by French-Canadian gangsters working closely with their colleagues in various factions of the Montreal underworld.</p>
<p>Montreal’s criminal element had come to dominate the drug trade in North America and this pipeline was just the latest example. Still, on the surface things seemed just like they were during the American mob’s good ol’ days.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237043273,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237043273?profile=original" width="290" /></a>BIG MAN: THE MAN WITH THE CONNECT</strong></span></p>
<p>To the people in New York he was known as “Big Man,” and he had all the right connections to get you high. Staten Islander John Venizelos was doing very well with his crew of dealers, moving thousands of pounds of marijuana from stash houses into the hands of eager clients. One ledger obtained by police showed nearly $4 million in marijuana transfers to Venizelos in an eight-month period alone.</p>
<p>When you are moving that much weight and making that much cash you better get some protection as well. “Big Man” Venizelos got it from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family</a>, one of five Mafia families operating in New York. As a mob associate Venizelos was put on record as being with the Bonannos. As the movie cliché goes: No one could touch him now.</p>
<p>With drug money flowing in, Venizelos was keeping up appearances as manager of “Jaguars 3,” a strip club/restaurant in Brooklyn owned by Vincent “Vinny Green” Faraci, a Bonanno family soldier who formerly managed the “Crazy Horse Too” strip club in Las Vegas. There, Venizelos was being groomed for “the life.”</p>
<p>Does all of this sound familiar? It should. The Bonanno crime family has a long history of involvement in the drug trade. It’s only normal that Venizelos would work with this particular mob family. Ever since the days of Joseph Bonanno, the family’s namesake and first boss, have the Bonannos had a taste for the riches the drug trade provides.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>THE DRUG PIPELINE BETWEEN MONTREAL AND NEW YORK</strong></span></p>
<p>In the 1950s, Bonanno sent his underboss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/death-in-the-afternoon-the">Carmine Galante</a> to Canada to set up shop and plant a flag for the New York Mafia family. Galante gathered some good men around him who were made into the Bonanno family in New York. Operating out of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, Galante oversaw the lucrative heroin pipeline destined for New York. The “Americans” were in total control.</p>
<p>There is one big difference between those days and how things are being run now, though. Today, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American Mafia</a> has no control or say in the pipeline. They are on the receiving end as customers. Their days of calling the shots in Canada came to a gradual end somewhere in the 1990s when the Montreal faction led by Vito Rizzuto had become more powerful than all five New York families combined and stopped paying tribute to their <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino">supposed boss</a> back in the United States.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>GANGLAND MONTREAL</strong></span></p>
<p>While members of the Bonanno crime family in New York were scheming their way to a payday of a couple million dollars at best, the Rizzutos in Montreal were making hundreds of millions from drug trafficking, construction, extortion, and many other shady dealings. All of it on a global scale. The clan was even linked to the multi-billion dollar plans for the construction of a bridge between Calabria and Sicily. By then, the Rizzutos also had money pouring in from legitimate investments.</p>
<p>Using his influence, charisma, and people skills, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mafia-boss-vito-rizzuto-1946-2013">Vito Rizzuto</a>, as did his father Nick before him, had managed to keep the Montreal underworld not just in check, but working together, all the while expanding their criminal empire. No small feat when you consider that this city is inhabited by battle hardened Hells Angels, the Irish West End gang, French-Canadian gangsters, and various ethnic street gangs. </p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>A YOUNG DRUG DEALER WITH BIG DREAMS</strong></span></p>
<p>In 1999, the Rizzuto Clan effectively controlled the Montreal underworld. The streets were peaceful and, above all, profitable.</p>
<p>In January of that year, a young man by the name of Jimmy Cournoyer pleaded guilty to drug charges. Together with his brother, Jimmy was running a marijuana grow op inside an apartment they shared in Laval, Montreal. With the money they made dealing pot, the pair financed another, bigger, grow op at a chalet in a ski resort in the Laurantians north of Montreal.</p>
<p>Not bad for a teenager.</p>
<p>But despite his success, Cournoyer was still just a young, cocky kid. One that needed to boast and chat about his criminal exploits. It wasn’t long before he told an undercover police agent about his marijuana business, after also selling him some weed.</p>
<p>So there he stood in court at the start of a new year. Ready to face the music. The tune he heard must have sounded like the best song in the world. The judge only sentenced him to a fine. He was free to go.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237043664,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237043664?profile=original" width="280" /></a>Young Jimmy Cournoyer (right) went straight back to work.</p>
<p>He proved to be a master at bringing different parties together. Just like the Rizzutos did, but on a much smaller scale. For Cournoyer it was only the beginning, though. He had big plans.</p>
<p>Instead of redecorating his own living space with pot plants again, Cournoyer reached out to residents of the Kanesatake reserve near Montreal. On these Native-American reserves in North America the rules become blurry and law enforcement tends to lose focus. Cournoyer and his aboriginal partners made full use of these circumstances and moved large quantities of marijuana from Canada to the United States, where it sold for more than twice the price.</p>
<p>It was good money, but not enough for the entrepreneurial drug dealer. He wanted more, and he wanted it fast. His operation expanded into other drugs, like ecstasy. And the Indian reserve near Montreal became a transit point for drugs, guns, and money.</p>
<p>But it remained difficult to fly under the radar of law enforcement. After a good run, Cournoyer and his gang of aboriginal smugglers were busted by the RCMP and he was off to prison again.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>REBOOT: MORE DRUGS, MORE MONEY, MORE LA DOLCE VITA</strong></span></p>
<p>After his release from prison in 2007, Cournoyer remained an incorrigible criminal. He had spent his time in prison thinking solely about expanding his narcotics empire. While on parole and living in a halfway house, he began building new partnerships to reboot his drug business. He met with members of the Rizzuto Clan and the Hells Angels and got them onboard. He also linked up with contacts in the United States and Mexico, bringing his drug ring to a full circle.</p>
<p>He was moving cocaine from the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico to the Rizzuto Clan in North America, marijuana from Canada to the United States, and guns and money from the United States to Canada. By now he wasn’t just known as Jimmy Cournoyer, but as “Superman,” the man who supplied most of the East Coast with marijuana. Authorities later claimed Cournoyer trafficked $1 billion in marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy between 1998 and 2012.</p>
<p>His success was visible. He owned a $2-million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car, partied with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, sparred with retired UFC champion Georges St-Pierre, and dated supermodel Amelia Racine.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237042875,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237042875?profile=original" width="520" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Photo above: Georges St-Pierre, Jimmy Cournoyer, and Leonardo DiCaprio.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>THE INEVITABLE FALL</strong></span></p>
<p>All gangland success stories tend to follow the same path. Everyone started from the bottom, climbed up, reached the top of the heap, only to fall down before they could really enjoy their success.</p>
<p>The fall always comes as a surprise.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237044256,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237044256?profile=original" width="300" /></a>When Jimmy Cournoyer (right) was flying from Montreal to Cancun, Mexico, on February 16, 2012, he was probably thinking about cocktails and hot girls, some new drug deal he could set up. He was definitely not expecting to be seized by Mexican border agents and put on a plane to the United States to face drug charges.</p>
<p>Yet, that was exactly what happened.</p>
<p>Several months later, on November 27, 2012, DEA agents in the United States arrested “Big John” Venizelos. They charged the 33-year-old with conspiracy to import marijuana, use of firearms and money laundering conspiracy.</p>
<p>Apparently, Venizelos saw his downfall coming. A few days before his arrest, he started threatening possible witnesses against him.</p>
<p>The American Mafia has a long history of threatening, influencing, bribing, and unrepentantly killing witnesses against it. It’s how John Gotti earned the nickname “Teflon Don.” With his status as an associate of the Bonanno crime family, Venizelos should have no problem using the Mafia’s reputation to scare potential witnesses straight.</p>
<p>But instead of dropping the name of the Bonanno family or any of its members, he dropped the name of French-Canadian Jimmy Cournoyer.</p>
<p>According to a letter that Brooklyn Assistant US Attorney Steven Tiscione wrote to a judge, “Venizelos sent an encrypted message” to a co-conspirator, warning that person “that he/she had better hope that Cournoyer or members of his organization never found out that [the co-conspirator] had spoken with law enforcement agents because Cournoyer has $2 million set aside to pay for the murder of cooperating witnesses.”</p>
<p>Included in the letter were encrypted messages from Venizelos that government experts just recently deciphered. One of them reads: “Seriously bro. I know [Cournoyer] has like 2 mil...just to pay guys to handle that once he sentenced.”</p>
<p>Murder fund or not, it was of no use to Venizelos and Cournoyer. Several former associates had started lining up to testify against them in court.</p>
<p>After all other options disappeared from the table, “Big Man” pleaded guilty and hoped for the best. At his sentencing on August 19, 2014, the judge handed the 35-year-old Bonanno associate 11 years. He will still be a relatively young man when he gets out.</p>
<p>Cournoyer saw no other way out either. Despite all his connections and millions set aside to intimidate or murder witnesses, the best he could do in court was present the judge with letters of support from friends that highlighted the drug boss’ more human side.</p>
<p>The most surprising letter came from retired UFC champion Georges St-Pierre. The MMA superstar is known for his class, politeness, and upstanding lifestyle and behavior in and outside the cage. He wrote: “My name is Georges St-Pierre, world UFC champion. I am writing this letter regarding my really good friend Jimmy Cournoyer.”</p>
<p>He writes that the two first met at a restaurant in 2009 and later travelled together to Ibiza, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, for a couple of days.</p>
<p>“We had the time of our life. Jimmy became like a brother to me. We travelled together, we trained together, we were going to restaurants, clubs and having a lot of fun. Jimmy is a very loyal friend who I respect very much. I’ve never judged Jimmy. Actually, what he was doing (with) his life wasn’t any of my business. We have a very human relationship; we share the same passions, which is sport fitness and martial arts.”</p>
<p>St-Pierre also writes how he has visited Cournoyer twice in jail since his arrest.</p>
<p>“His mental toughness will help him go through this very hard ordeal in his life. Jimmy is a very positive and strong person and I am sure he will learn huge lessons about all that. I am giving a lot of support to Jimmy because he deserves it. I told him last time I visited him that when he comes out of jail, I will have a place for him in my surrounding(s),” the former UFC champion wrote.</p>
<p>Whether it was St-Pierre’s letter or Cournoyer’s guilty plea stocked with millions in drug dollars, the sentence wasn’t all that bad: 27 years in prison. If he serves that sentence in Canada, he will be out in seven years. That is a nice deal for the head of an international drug organization that smuggled copious amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy to the United States and is linked to just about every notorious criminal group in the world.</p>
<p>As part of his sentence, Cournoyer agreed to a $1 billion forfeiture money judgment and will forfeit $10,871,120 in narcotics proceeds that federal agents seized from multiple locations in New York, California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas during the multi-year investigation.</p>
<p>Always the money. It can make the difference between doing hard time in prison for as long as you live or serving ten years in a country club.</p>
<p>After Cournoyer’s imprisonment, United States Attorney Lynch said, “Jimmy Cournoyer used Native American Reservations to violate the security of our national borders and smuggled more than $1 billion worth of deadly narcotics and firearms between the United States, Canada and Mexico. His territory - all of North America. His goal - to extend the deadly narcotics trade as far as he could and eliminate those who might think of assisting law enforcement.”</p>
<p>DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Crowell stated, “This organization consisted of a den of thieves ranging from the Rizutto and Bonanno crime families, to the Hells Angels and the Sinaloa Cartel. The organization operated across all of North America. This investigation’s success is the result of our federal, state, local and international law enforcement partnership targeting these organized crime syndicates, Mexican cartels, the Hells Angels, along with a $2 million ‘hit fund’ to deter witness cooperation.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME</strong></span></p>
<p>While the players and bosses may change, the game remains the same. Whether the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American Mafia</a> controls the pipeline or a French-Canadian kid in his thirties does, in the end the dope gets delivered to junkies throughout the United States. Where there is demand, there will be supply.</p>
<p>Will the next Jimmy Cournoyer please stand up?</p>
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