An Ontario man who flew to Mexico eight years ago — four days after police released a photo of a suspect wanted for two mob murders — has been arrested in Mexico and is fighting extradition back to Canada to face murder charges.
Daniel Tomassetti, 35, one of Canada’s most wanted, being found alive is as surprising as his arrest, because two other men linked to the shootings who also fled to Mexico were found dead.
Tomassetti was named by police in Hamilton and York Region, north of Toronto, as a suspect in two high-profile targeted shootings in 2017 linked to a Mafia feud.
On May 2, 2017, Angelo Musitano, brother of Hamilton Mafia boss Pasquale (Pat) Musitano, was shot at close range as he sat in his pickup truck in the driveway of his suburban Hamilton home by a man who had been waiting nearby and ran up to the driver’s side window.
Earlier, on March 14, 2017, the same gunman ran up to another car that had pulled into a parking lot outside of a store in Vaughan, Ont., and started shooting into its darkened windows, before realizing the driver had already got out to greet someone. He then fired at the couple beside the car, killing Mila Barberi, 28, the girlfriend of his presumed target.
Police said the bullets were meant for her boyfriend Saverio Serrano, or a member of his family. His father, Diego Serrano, has a long history as a drug importer and a brother, Francesco Serrano, also had criminal ties.
A joint investigation by police in both jurisdictions, codenamed Project Scopa, led to the same people being accused in both shootings, including Tomassetti.
There was a $50,000 reward for information leading to Tomassetti’s arrest. He is wanted on charges of two murders, attempted murder and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder. He was featured as a Top 25 most-wanted person in 2023 in the BOLO Program, when police said he might be in the United States. An Interpol Red Notice had been issued for Tomassetti.
Hamilton Police Service spokesman Const. Adam Kimber said Tomassetti “is currently in custody in Mexico, and efforts are underway to facilitate his extradition to Canada.” Const. James Dickson, spokesman for York Regional Police said Tomassetti was contesting his extradition back to Canada. Neither would provide details of the circumstances or timing of the arrest.
Also linked to the two murders was Michael Cudmore, 39, of Hamilton, Ont., named as the triggerman in both murders, and Daniele Ranieri, 34, a volatile gangland enforcer from Toronto who was a criminal mentor to Cudmore. Both men fled to Mexico after the murders.
Ranieri’s body was found trussed up, executed and dumped in a ditch in Mexico in 2018. Cudmore’s body was found inside a vehicle abandoned at the side of a rural road in Mexico at the end of June 2020.
When Tomassetti’s fugitive status stretched into years, many thought he had met a similar fate in Mexico.
Police investigating the Musitano and Barberi killings had found cars used in the hits were registered to another Hamilton man, named Jabril Abdalla. He was arrested in the cases but a court found he was a lackey doing menial tasks for money and had no knowledge of murder plots.
Abdalla had been school friends with Tomassetti, who originally bonded over basketball, Abdalla earlier told National Post.
His nickname was “Dancer,” a play on his first name, Abdalla said of their time at St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton.
“He was one of the rich kids, at least to me,” Abdalla said. “He was one of the first ones to have a car — it was a souped-up Honda Civic.”
After high school Tomassetti was business focused, he said.
“He was very ambitious. We started, you know, brainstorming ideas,” Abdalla said. “He loved to travel, and he had this idea of starting a company, so he pitched this idea to me and it was really neat.”
Tomassetti ended up starting WAYV, short for Welcome Aboard Yacht Vacations, offering private yacht charters in the Caribbean and Mexico. Abdalla said he started running errands for Tomassetti to make extra money, and later for a mutual friend, who was Cudmore. Cudmore was a founding member of a Hamilton street gang and had ties to members of the Hells Angels and the Mafia.
Police evidence presented in Abdalla’s case said the two used encrypted messaging apps to communicate. In court filings police alleged messages were received on a phone registered to Tomassetti from a phone that police couldn’t trace speaking with animosity about members of the Musitano family, which had a long and violent history as one of three traditional Mafia clans in Hamilton.
After Angelo Musitano’s murder, police found a GPS tracker on his truck. Investigators traced it to a spy shop north of Toronto. Police alleged in Abdalla’s case that Cudmore and Tomassetti bought several trackers there.
It was a photo of a man at the spy shop that was released by police at a press conference on Jan. 23, 2018, that is alleged to have put pressure on those suspected in the plots. Detectives later alleged it was of Tomassetti.
That evening, according to police allegations in court files, someone used a phone registered to a relative of Tomassetti’s to search for information on the news conference and for a well-known Toronto lawyer. The next day, the same phone was used to search for more news on the case, and for the definition of conspiracy, police allege.
Four days after the police announcement, Tomassetti flew to Mexico.
On Sept. 19, 2018, police announced the arrest of Abdalla and that Tomassetti and Cudmore were wanted for murder, with police naming Cudmore as the triggerman in both the Musitano and Barberi murders.
Tomassetti, nor a legal representative, could not be reached for comment.
• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys
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