There is never a clear announcement when a mob war begins or ends. It just happens. And it was starting to look as if it was happening now.

# CHAPTER 6

# Dangerous new associates

It was tempting to wonder if the answer to Nick Jr.'s murder lay behind the walls of the Gibralter-like condominium development near the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. Prestigious, posh and secure, 1000 de la Commune Street was home to millionaire hockey players, socialites and also some mobsters. Owning condos there were Vittorio Mirarchi; Haitian street-gang veteran and convicted pimp Vick Sévère Paul; Hells Angels Normand (Casper) Ouimet and Salvatore Cazzetta; and Ducarme Joseph, co-founder of the 67's street gang and the Blue gang alliance.

Nick Jr. had been involved in turning the old refrigerated warehouse into the massive complexwould-be killer was arrested before he could do the job. When Bertolo felt the cold steel of handcuffs on his wrists two days before Christmas 1992—busted for a scheme to import fifty-eight kilograms of cocaine—he could have pointed a finger at men whom police would much rather have had in their net: Raynald Desjardins and other higher-ups in the Rizzuto food chain, Vito included. Instead, Bertolo quietly took the fall, as a solid guy does.

Upon his release, Bertolo was shocked to learn that his old drug turf was gone. Frank Arcadi had handed it over to someone else in Vito's organization. That was understandable. Business had to continue. Addicts want their drugs. Mobsters want their profits. What shocked Bertolo was the news that he wouldn't be getting it