Antonio "Tony" Marabella
Montreal Mafia
    Antonio Marabella, born in the  early 1970s and raised in Saint-Leonard,  was  considered  one  of  the  Montreal  Expos  baseball organization’s  prospects  with  the  highest  potential. He signed a contract  with  the  team  in 1989, when he  was only 16, but  his career never really paned  out, and in 1995, he was  released from the organization.

     By 1998, Marabella’s baseball career  had come to  an end. He chose a new path, supposedly becoming involved in loansharking, and reportedly associating with the Montreal Mafia.

     On  December  1, 1999,  Marabella, his  brother, Mario, André Boyer, and  Frank Martorana, a  reputed Montreal Mafia lieutenant with links to Vito Rizzuto, were charged with extortion.
    According to a  Journal de Montréal article, the  alleged victim, Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, owned half of a Japanese restaurant with Frank Martorana’s wife. After a business disagreement, Martorana and several  henchmen  allegedly paid Tremblay, threatened him, and forced  him to give up $75,000. Two weeks later, on  June 25, the  accused  allegedly paid Tremblay another visit, this time at  an art gallery he owned, where they supposedly stole paintings worth an estimated $150,000.

     All charges  against  Tony Marabella would be  dropped in  September, 2002. His  brother, Mario, André Boyer, and  Frank Martorana would plead guilty. The first two were fined $2,500  and $5,000, respectively, while the third was sentenced to two years of house arrest.

     Marabella  was  again  arrested  on  January 18, 2001, while out  on bail  for  the  aforementioned incident, this time on charges of loansharking. Police picked  Marabella up  at in  a  Jean-Talon Street Italian café, out of which he allegedly operated his racket. During a search of the former ball player’s home, police reportedly found a loaded firearm, $65,000 in cash, and a list of debtors.

     One of  those debtors, a cab driver, had  approached  authorities in  November to complain  about Marabella’s  alleged  activities. The cab driver had  borrowed $5,000 at five per cent interest  a week, and after paying a total of $11,000 over a period of a year, still owed $8,000.

     Marabella would  plead guilty in  June, 2002, according to information published  in the  Montreal Gazette, and be fined $3,000. He received three years probation for possession of the firearm.