| Salvatore Cazzetta |
| Salvatore Cazzetta was born in 1954 and grew up on the tough streets of Saint-Henri, Montreal. When his SS biker gang dissolved into the Hells Angels in 1984, Cazzetta decided to go on his own way. He knew about the Hells Angels and didn't want any part of an organization that flaunted it's membership so openly. Along with his younger brother Giovanni, he hoped to create a new breed of bikers. Their organization would be like any other biker gang, but without patches. This meant much less public notoriety and police pressure. In its place, members would wear special gold rings to identify themselves. This gang was called the Rock Machine. The brothers built up their network and, by the early 1990s, the Rock Machine had ten members in Montreal and had opened a branch in Quebec City. Over a hundred associates worked for them, smuggling and distributing millions of dollars worth of drugs. |
Cazzetta was a shrewd businessman, driven to succeed, and he understood that the best way to survive and prosper in the underworld was to acquire contacts. He developed working relationships with Montreal's Italian Mafia, the West End Gang, and the French-Canadian Dubois gang. But all good things must come to an end. Cazzetta - who now owned a house in l'Épiphanie worth more than $2 million - was indicted for having imported 11 tons of cocaine from the United States. Paul Larue, a Canadian narcotics trafficker convicted in Florida, became an informer and explained to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about the large scale drug ring Cazzetta and West End Gang lieutenant William McAllister had. Cazzetta decided to "go on the lam" but he was finally apprehended on May 8, 1994, in Fort Erie, Ontario. He would eventually be extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges. He was sentenced in late June 1999 to 12 years in prison. On June 5, 2002, Cazzetta, still in prison, was informed by authorities that he was being charged in Operation Amigo, a police investigation into the Bandidos biker gang that ended with every full-patch member of the gang across being arrested. The bust, biker expert Guy Ouellette said, basically put an end to the brutal gang war that had raged on since 1994 since there were no more Bandidos on the streets for the Hells Angels to fight. Cazzetta was charged with trafficking in cocaine and marijuana while behind bars. |
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