Michele Modica

Michele Modica (; born 1955) is an Italian businessman who has been active in organized crime in the United States and Canada.

From New York to Toronto Born in Sicily, Modica was convicted in his native Italy of gangsterism. In the 1980s, he was an illegal immigrant to the United States where he lived in New York City. Modica was a member of the Gambino family, where he was considered to be a good earner. He was convicted of heroin trafficking, and was deported back to Italy in 2000 after serving a long prison sentence. Frank Cali, a Gambino family capo arranged for the Rizzuto family of Montreal to take Modica under their wing and to let him work in Toronto under the supervision of Pietro Scarcella. A policeman who asked not to be named told the journalist Rob Lamberti: "Modica is the guy who had a beef in New York. He's a Gambino guy involved in the drug trade and he was causing problems for the Gambinos in New York. They had to look after him. Because he’s related by blood, the Gambinos, they asked a favour, for the Canadians up here to look after him. So who looks after him?"

Attempted murder On April 21, 2004, Modica visited a restaurant, California Sandwiches, in north Toronto along with his bodyguards Andrea Fortunato Carbone and Pietro Scaduto. As Modica sat down, a van cruised by and gunmen opened fire. Scarcella's nephew Antonio Borrelli had sprayed bullets with an AR-15 assault rifle from a van including Hells Angels bikers Paris Christoforou and Mark Peretz as the driver. Modica was arrested at the Queens Quay in Toronto on charges of being in Canada illegally and was deported to Sicily on May 21, 2004. In an attempt to feign sympathy, Modica faked a heart attack when he was arrested.

In 2008, Modica was arrested in Italy by the Carabinieri as part of Operation Old Bridge, a joint operation that involved law enforcement in the United States and Italy. The Carabinieri alleged that after killing Lo Iacono that Modica planned to return to Canada. Modica was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and later released from prison in April 2014. Lorenzo Carbone, a mafioso who turned pentito testified that Modica's former bodyguard Pietro Scaduto was planning to have him killed once he was released from prison.

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