Six federal prisons in Quebec reportedly buy their coffee from a company belonging to a family linked to the Sicilian Mafia.
Media reports allege Caffe Cimo, owned by the Caruana family and located in the Montreal neighbourhood of St-Leonard, has been the lowest bidder on the Public Works Canada contracts to provide coffee to the prisons for the past eight years.
Giovanni Caruana was the president of Caffe Cimo until his death in 2012. He was a "man of honour" in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, in Italy — a term used to describe fully initiated members of the Sicilian Mafia.
Having immigrated to Canada in the '60s, he was part of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, a global organization dealing in drug trafficking and money laundering. In the late 1990s, Caruana was tried and convicted in absentia in Italy for associating with the Mafia.
Canada did not extradite him despite Italy's requests.
By the time Caruana died in 2012, inmates and staff at six federal institutions in Quebec — Drummondville, La Macaza, Port-Cartier, Montée Saint-François, Archambault and the Federal Training Centre — had already been drinking his coffee for five years.
Caffe Cimo continues to operate under the leadership of Caruana's children.
Son Joseph, who is vice-president of the company, served a prison sentence for heroin trafficking.
?When reporters asked him how a convicted felon could bid for government contracts, he said he received a pardon in 1995. Media outlets were told his criminal record is sealed.
Public Works Canada said in an email that coffee orders do not come with any security precautions.
It's written into Caffe Cimo's contract that the government can order an investigation into security matters, including people making the deliveries.
