CBC News: the fifth estate

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Aired November 29,
2006 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

WATCH the fifth estate ONLINE:

Watch this story online.

Runs: 39:39
REPORTER: Hana Gartner
PRODUCER: Oleh Rumak
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER:
Lynette Fortune

WEB EXCLUSIVE

Louise Russo talks with Hana Gartner about the night that changed her life forever.

THE RAT

It was the shooting that shocked Toronto and opened the city's eyes to gun crime. On April 21, 2004, Louise Russo, a mother of three, was struck by a bullet fragment from a semi-automatic gun while waiting in line at California Sandwiches, a family restaurant in a quiet suburb of North Toronto. As the story unfolded over two years, startling details were released in court documents. Louise Russo was a victim of circumstance and timing, hit by a bullet intended for a Sicilian mobster sitting at the back of the restaurant.

INFORMANT HELPS CRACK THE CASE

The police were only able to crack the case because of a police informant whose name, Raffaele Delle Donne, was revealed in a single line of a court document. Intrigued by this, the fifth estate set out to find Delle Donne. What Delle Donne told us would paint a picture of the Toronto Sicilian Mafia, including turf wars, betrayal, and attempted murder.

Delle Donne, considered a rat by the mob has a $100,000 contract on his head. Both the Hell's Angels and the Sicilian mafia in Toronto want him dead. He's on the run now, living a life in the shadows. So, he slipped into Toronto and met the fifth estate in a warehouse on Toronto's waterfront to tell his story.

Delle Donne was a low-ranking member of the Toronto's Sicilian mafia whose boss was Peter Scarcella. Most of the work Delle Donne did was as a gofer and driver. He also made his money with Scarcella and his crew doing mortgage frauds.

A TURF WAR TURNS DEADLY

According to Delle Donne, the story begins three years prior to the shooting, in 2001, with the arrival of a Sicilian mobster named Mike Modica. Modica had an extensive criminal record for trafficking in narcotics and he arrived in Toronto looking for opportunities. Scarcella took him under his wing, helped him settle in Toronto. Modica, however, was ambitious and ruthless and over the next couple of years tried to move in on Scarcella's businesses, starting a turf war.

Scarcella demanded of Delle Donne that he betray Modica, help set up a hit. But, the hit went wrong, Louise Russo was severely wounded and Delle Donne's own life was jeopardized. At that moment, he realized that he, too, was expendable in the eyes of Scarcella and the mob. He had been betrayed, so he would betray them. He became a police informant and wore a wire to help the police collect evidence against those behind the hit.

Delle Donne's cooperation with the police led to the conviction of Scarcella and others Delle Donne once considered his friends. The Rat is a story of loyalty and betrayal and of one woman whose life was changed forever.

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