Martino Caputo (Italian pronunciation: [marˈtiːno kaˈpuːto]; born 1973) is an Italian-Canadian gangster who was the Toronto agent of the Rizzuto family of Montreal.
[1] Caputo had no criminal record prior to 2014 and was one of Toronto's most successful businessmen, who owned and operated the well regarded Savourie restaurant in Forest Hill from 1996 to 2004.
[4] In 2001, Caputo was arrested as part of a police investigation into what was described by the journalists Jodee Brown and Ron Wadden as "a Mafia-led illegal gambling ring that yielded more than $200 million in sports bets through Internet links, store-front businesses and high-tech gadgets".
[5] On 9 November 2002, the Crown dropped the charges against Caputo as a part of a plea bargain where the leader of the gambling ring, Dario Zanetti, pledged guilty to bookmaking and paid a $300,000 fine.
[1] The party astonished the policemen watching it as it was attended by the senior leaders of both the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Sicilian Mafia despite the bloody gang war raging in Montreal at the time.
If he could enjoy the company of the Rizzuto clan's avowed enemies, he could stomach working with the Wolfpack Alliance-even its bumbling Niagara coke smuggler, Nick Nero".
[11] The Wolfpack alliance imported cocaine from the Sinaloa Cartel, whose leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was described in their texts as "lil old guy".
[12] In his texts, Nero described Caputo as one of the most important cocaine distributors in Canada, writing that he was at the apex of a drug dealing network spreading across the country.
The two men who were supposed best friends, were both having an affair with the same women who worked as a waitress in a Toronto restaurant, whom Edwards and Nájera noted "...was not to be confused with either the mother of Raposo's son or Caputo's moneyed girlfriend".
[8] At the same time, a shipment of cocaine worth $5 million from Mexico was supposed to arrive via Chicago in Toronto soon with the profits to be split four ways between Caputo, Nero, Raposo and Robbie Alkhalil.
[20] On the same day, Nero reported to Caputo that he was going to have another shipment of cocaine from Mexico smuggled in a private airplane as he wrote: "I'm sending the jet bello, what a mess!!!!!
[22] When Wiwchar arrived in Toronto from Vancouver on 24 May 2012, he was met by Caputo who gave him Raposo's address and a list of his favorite places such as the Sicilian Sideway Café.
[26] The cocaine shipment worth $5 million arrived in a Toronto junkyard, but was stolen by an unknown person before Caputo and Alkhalil received it.
[29] A warrant for Caputo's arrest was issued in November 2012 as part of Operation Ink 2, an investigation of Nero's drug smuggling network.
[34] On 12 May 2016, Caputo was charged in Montreal with conspiracy to traffic in narcotics as part of Project Clemenza, a police operation against the Rizzuto family.
[34] On 20 March 2017, the Project Clemenza charges against Caputo were stayed after allegations emerged that some of the Crown's evidence such as interpreted cell phone calls had been gathered illegally without warrant by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
[38] In sentencing Caputo and the others on 27 June 2017, Justice Robert Clark stated: "This conspiracy was motivated by sheer, unbridled and rapacious greed".
[40] She became pregnant with his child in December 2021, with medical assistance, and after Caputo ended the relationship in February 2022, they entered a court battle where she argued that he made an annual income of $243,531 through real estate investments and sports gambling, even while behind bars.