Jan. 30 slaying outside a Brampton halfway house where the victim, Constantin Alevizos, was on parole for his part in an Ecstasy operation.
"We like where we are at with this case," Insp. Norm English said. "We are very pleased with the progress we have made." "Nobody has asked me," English said. "In fact, we have not received one tip from the public and not one media call."
It seems the scary-looking Alevizos, who was also known as Rhino Gus, was not warm and cuddly or in many people's thoughts. It seems people are comfortable letting this one go without much interest. Everybody, it seems, but the Peel homicide squad who are all over this. Well, they have seen Mafia killings before. Former boxer and mob heavy Eddie Melo being gunned down in his truck is the most recent. There were no witnesses. Two years later there were two people in custody. Peel cops bat 100% on murder. Last year all 16 homicides were solved. But with this one their batting average might be tested because this one is a real whodunnit! It doesn't intimidate Peel cops. "We have some ideas," said English, who was at the scene outside the St. Leonard's halfway house in the Queen St. and West Dr. area yesterday with Det. Sgt. Sean Lawson and Det. Dan Johnstone. With veteran homicide detectives you must translate. Homicide cops are always thinking court. They don't play their cards loosely. So let me translate: They have a pretty good understanding of who ordered the hit, have a pretty good idea who pulled the trigger and just as solid an idea why. "You have to remember this occurred on Jan. 30 and we are just a month into this," English said. "There is a tremendous amount of work that still needs to be done and it absolutely will be done." And he is confident someone out there, who knows what happened, will eventually talk with them. "We know it's dangerous for some to come forward but we encourage them to do this," English said. "We will be pursing people and asking questions, so it would make everyone's life a lot easier if they would come in because eventually we'll be speaking with you." This case could involve a conspiracy with people from Vancouver to Montreal.
With the underworld, police have the advantage of knowing who is in and what their criminal past has been. "Criminals of this sort have their activities well-documented, however it certainly doesn't give you the evidence required to proceed to court. Of course we'd like some assistance and we know there are people out there who could provide that," English said. "Like with any investigation we will eventually connect all of the dots and do our very best to solve this case."
You stand at this murder scene and it's eerie. Big Gus, a former football player who tried out for the Toronto Argos in 1989, got out of his car, where he was shot by perhaps more than one gunman, and the doorway of the halfway house he stumbled into. Just a few metres away you have several office buildings, a gas station and a residential neighbourhood. "We just can't have this," English said. "Anybody could have been struck by a wayward bullet from this brazen gunman or gunmen. "This is totally unacceptable." What the killers may not have seen is the cameras. "They do help," English said. Even professional killers make mistakes and the cops understand there are a number of people with a whole host of nicknames who could have their fingers on this one. Somebody ordered the 6-foot-6, 450-pound mob enforcer's death.
And someone went to a lot of trouble to not only meticulously plan it but to perfectly execute it with almost military precision. an alleged go-between with the bikers and the Rizzuto crime family of Montreal, who was on parole for his involvement in a conspiracy to traffic more than 500,000 pills of Ecstasy.
It was that Mafia association that cops theorize could have resulted in his murder, as well as the fact that after his friend and fellow Rizzuto family traveller Gaetano Panepinto, a co-owner of a discount casket maker, was slain in 2000 he is believed to have gone into his home to retrieve more than half a million bucks that belonged to the Rizzutos. "He played the game and he paid the price for that
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