Alfonso Caruana (; born January 1, 1946) is an Italian-Canadian crime boss and member of the Sicilian Mafia and was the head of the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan's branch in Canada. In 1997, he was sentenced in absentia in Italy, on several charges, to nearly 22 years in prison. In 1998, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) amassed enough evidence, and Caruana was arrested at his Woodbridge, Ontario, home. In 2000, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Ontario Superior Court, but in 2008, was extradited to Italy to serve his sentence. Early life Caruana was born into the mob in Castelvetrano in the province of Trapani, Sicily. His family originated from Siculiana in the province of Agrigento, and is closely related to the Cuntrera-family through several marriages. Alfonso Caruana married his niece Giuseppina Caruana and has a son and two daughters. Mafia career In 1968, Alfonso Caruana arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with $100 in his pocket pretending to be an electrician. Ten years later he was stopped at the international airport of Zürich, Switzerland with $600,000 in a suitcase. He was released after paying a fee. When the Caruanas and Cuntreras moved to Montreal in the mid-1960s, they became affiliated with Nicolo Rizzuto and his son, Vito Rizzuto. They began to work together in drug trafficking activities. In the 1970s Caruana, together with his brothers Gerlando Caruana and Pasquale Caruana left Montreal for Caracas in Venezuela due to the conflict with the Cotroni crime family. In 1978, Cotroni family boss Paolo Violi was killed, and they returned to Canada; the Rizzuto crime family subsequently took over. Caruana also acquired Canadian citizenship in 1978. At the beginning of the 1980s, Alfonso established himself near Lugano in a luxurious villa, supervising the laundering of the proceeds of heroin-trafficking. The funds were deposited in Canadian banks and channelled through Swiss bank accounts. Two years later he moved to the stockbroker belt near London. From his £450,000 mansion, he supervised a heroin pipeline from Thailand, through England, to Canada. His partner in the UK was Francesco Di Carlo. Caruana went to Thailand to set up the route. When the pipeline was dismantled in England in 1985, he managed to escape arrest, moving back to a Montreal suburb where he opened a pizzeria. Alfonso prepared the pizzas while his wife tended the pay-desk. According to Di Carlo, who became a