Mob enforcer deported from Canada for a third time
Rob Lamberti, Special to the Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, May 04, 2012 05:30 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, May 04, 2012 05:45 PM EDT

Juan Ramon Paz-Fernandez — also known as Joe Bravo — first deported in 1999, is led away by RCMPin 2001 after the mob enforcer was nabbed in Woodbridge. (Toronto Sun files)

TORONTO – Maybe Canada will get lucky on the third try.

Rizzuto mob enforcer Joe Bravo — jailed in 2004 for planning a hit on a fellow mobster — was deported to Spain in April after his 12-year prison term for conspiring to commit murder and importing a tonne of cocaine ended.

The concern now is whether he’ll try to sneak back into Canada as he did twice before after being deported to Europe.

Law enforcement officials expect that’s exactly what he’ll do, sources say.

A theory police sources cite for Bravo itching to return is because he may have a large quantity of money on the street in loans, drugs, gaming and credit card fraud.

He was first ousted in 1999 after a prison term, but sneaked back into the country, and was again deported in 2001.

Bravo, whose real name is Juan Ramon Paz Fernandez, returned soon after his second deportation.

He was repeatedly denied parole while serving his sentence after being arrested in Project R.I.P., a York Regional Police sweep of Vito Rizzuto’s mob operations in the GTA.

Bravo’s prison sentence was to end April 21, but sources say he was sent back to Spain in March.

Antonella DiGirolamo, spokesperson with the Canada Border Service Agency, however said the agency can’t confirm or deny Bravo was removed from Canada.

“In the case of removals, in accordance with the Privacy Act, the CBSA is unable to confirm or deny the removal of any individual,” she stated.

“Protecting the safety of Canadians is a top priority for the CBSA and we place the highest priority on removal cases involving national security, organized crime, crimes against humanity and criminals,” DiGirolamo said in an email.

While Bravo was in jail, the man he was convicted of planning to murder, Constantin “Big Gus” Alevizos, was shot and killed in January 2008 in an execution-style assassination outside the St. Leonard Place halfway house in Brampton.

Alevizos was also convicted in Project R.I.P. for drug related offences and was on a monitored release program when he was murdered.

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Article posted in Crime, Crime (type), Crime by ethnicity, Deported/To be deported, European crime, Gang/Drugs/Organized crime