Musitano crime family

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The Musitano crime family is a Canadian Italian-Canadian Mafia group tied to the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta. Based mainly in Hamilton, Ontario, it operated for decades in Canada and had links to Italy. The family was founded in the 1940s by Angelo Musitano, and over the years its activities included extortion, loan sharking, money laundering, gambling, drug trafficking, and murder.

In the late 1970s, the Musitano family used a biker gang called the Wild Ones to help carry out a bombing campaign against businesses that refused to pay protection money. This period earned Hamilton the nickname “Bomb City.” One of the key figures in these bombings was Anthony “Tony” Musitano, who was eventually sentenced to prison in 1983 for the bombings and released in 1990.

During the 1990s, the Musitanos sought stronger influence by aligning with Montreal’s Rizzuto crime family, as they faced rival groups like the Papalia and Luppino crime families in the Hamilton area. In 1997, Angelo Musitano and his brother Pat Musitano ordered the killings of Johnny Papalia and his lieutenant Carmen Barillaro, a move that effectively weakened Papalia’s leadership in Canada. A hitman later testified to these murders, and the Musitano brothers were convicted in connection with Barillaro’s murder in 2000, though they received prison terms that were later adjusted.

Pat and Angelo were released in the mid-2000s, but the family’s fortunes continued to decline. Angelo Musitano was shot and killed in May 2017 in Waterdown, Ontario. A few weeks later, Pat Musitano survived a shooting at his home, but on July 10, 2020, he was shot and killed in Burlington, Ontario. These killings were part of a broader pattern of violence and power struggles in the Ontario underworld after the decline of older bosses.

The Musitano family’s power waned in the 2010s and 2020s as investigations linked multiple murders and attempted murders to them and their associates. The violent clashes between old-guard groups in Hamilton and newer competitors from the Buffalo-Montreal network left a volatile underworld in the region.

Today, the Musitano team is generally viewed as weakened. The killings of Angelo and Pat, along with legal crackdowns and shifting alliances, have reduced their influence and left ongoing instability in Hamilton’s Mafia scene.