It was fun to do this Toronto Star podcast on crime and the pandemic with Robert Benzie of The Star’s Queen’s Park bureau and podcast guru Raju Mudhar.

As governments plan how to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, criminals are planning how to sell fake ones, the international police agency INTERPOL warns.

Shane Maloney says he’s a changed man and wants nothing more to do with organized crime. Maloney was a big player in the Wolfpack Alliance. Now he says he wants to cut stress and enjoy his family more.

Senior Hells Angel Rob Barletta has had a particularly rough 2020. He survived a murder attempt and now he’s facing more charges relating to a massive police operation against gambling. The new ones relate to accusations he tried to crack into government computers with help of someone who was civil servant at the time.

The global pandemic is a sea change for organized crime groups globally. The smart ones are seizing opportunities while the weakest fall to the wayside. Socially distanced funerals after mob hits, improved delivery systems for drugs and an explosion of crime on the Internet are all part of the new reality.

The shooting of Michael Costa, 35, on Thursday evening has a complicated backstory, that includes a B.C. mobster in witness protection who was murdered, an affair with a mobster’s wife and a cop who was disciplined for lying.

Jimmy De Maria argued that he shouldn’t be deported to his birthplace of Italy because of Covid-19 and it worked.

Alfonso Caruana – once called the Wayne Gretzky of the Canadian mafia – has lost an Italian court battle appealing an 18 year sentence. He claimed in Ontario he was a $400 a week car wash worker, despite driving a late model Cadillac and Mercedes.

There were armed guards with dogs outside the illegal casino and waiters in tuxedos and more guns inside. Police give details of organized crime casino bust in GTA.

Mihale (Big Mike, Rookie) pleaded guilty this week in New York to playing a senior role in a Wolfpack-connected drug smuggling ring. His younger brother Anastasios was murdered in broad daylight in Toronto in January 2017.