HUNTER: Mexico no safe haven for Canadian gangsters and hitmen

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The Rio Grande floats lazily between the United States and Mexico before emptying into the Gulf.

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Both psychologically and physically, millions of immigrants have crossed into the US through this expanse of fetid water. Furthermore, for generations of American and Canadian outlaws and murderers, crossing the Rio Grande has meant freedom and safety.

But the end hasn’t always been golden sunsets and endless Margaritas.

Hamilton’s hit man, Michael James Cudmore, discovered it in June 2020.

Cudmore, who had connections to organized crime in Toronto and Hamilton, was the alleged perpetrator in the beating of mob scion Angelo Musitano in the driveway of his Waterdown home on May 2, 2017. That followed a failed hit in Vaughan who killed innocent bystander Mila. Barberi two months earlier, police said.

Just days after Musitano was removed from the board, setting off a seismic upheaval in the southern Ontario underworld, Cudmore fled to Mexico. His stay there lasted as long as a decent bottle of tequila.

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Police say Cudmore had fled south of the border with his underworld mentor, 34-year-old gangster Daniele “Dani” Ranieri. Ranieri’s body was found tied up in a Mexican ditch in 2018. He had been executed.

Towards the end of June 2020, it was Cudmore’s turn, and he was found murdered in an abandoned car alongside a rural road in Mexico. Cudmore could run but he couldn’t hide.

“If you’re running in those circles, there’s always a danger of this kind of thing happening,” now-retired Hamilton Police Detective Sgt. Peter Thom told reporters at the time.

And so it was for wanted Canadian mobsters Robert Dinh (Conh Dinh) and Thomas Cherukara.

On Friday, it was a scorching 29C in Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean side of the country. But at Hotel Xcaret, chaos reigned, and a gunman dressed in a light blue or gray tracksuit pulled the two men off the board. A woman with the partner was also shot but is expected to recover.

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Police said the killer had been walking with the two men minutes before before shooting at least five times. He has not been caught.

Dinh was wanted for money laundering by the RCMP and allegedly had deep ties to Vietnamese crime syndicates. He reportedly fled to Vietnam in 2013 one step ahead of the police. Media reports said the criminal network he was involved in smuggled cocaine into the United States and Canada.

Cherukara had a couple of drug busts under his belt, some robberies, weapons and property crimes rounded out his criminal resume, according to Canadian media reports.

Both men allegedly had criminal connections to the West Coast and the Toronto area. Cherukara is from Mississauga.

Wary of the bad news the dead tourists may bring, Mexican authorities were quick to characterize the killings as a dispute between hotel guests.

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In Mischa Glenny’s seminal study of global crime, McMafia, he compared the international rackets to a fast food franchise. No matter where you went, the long arm of plugged-in criminals could reach out and take you off the board. Taking coca for BC bud, using the hitmen of others, etc. Civilized.

And that seems to be what happened here.

One of the men allegedly involved in the Musitano and Barberi killings, Daniel Mario Tomassetti, is still at large, according to Hamilton police. Tomassetti, investigators say, initially fled to Mexico with Cudmore and Ranieri.

After all, he is by no means safe, as it appears that the people who ordered the hits are cutting all ties with the mechanics who supposedly did the work.

Without a doubt, Tomassetti lives terrified in a strange land without knowing where the bullet will come from. Mexico, it seems, is not the criminal sanctuary it once was.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun