The Maple Syrup Mafia

★★★ Does Canada have a mob? Find out inside! ★★★ It's no secret that organized crime is everywhere. From Japan and Italy to Israel and Mexico, there seems to be no place on earth where an organized crime family doesn't exist. You may think that one of the few safe places left is friendly, welcoming Canada, which many believe is so safe that people there always leave their doors unlocked. Think again. This book delves into the often ignored but nevertheless bloody world of Canadian mobs. You'll meet the Rizzutos, a powerful family with connections to the legendary Five Families of the American Mafia. Then there's the Cotroni family formed by Vic "the Egg" Cotroni, an ex-wrestler with ties to the Ndrangheta. You'll also learn about their connections to the blood-soaked Quebec Biker War, where the Hell's Angels and the Rock Machine battled for 17 years and claimed 150 lives. And just wait until you get to Toronto! Prepare to be shocked by the true story of organized crime in Canada. It proves that there is truth to the expression, "it's the quiet ones you have to watch."

Their names resonate with organized crime in Montreal: the Matticks, MacAllisters, Johnstons and Griffins, and Peter Dunie Ryan. They are the Irish equivalent of the infamous Rizzuto and Cotroni families, and the "Mom" Bouchers and Walter Stadnicks of the Hells Angels. Award-winning producer, journalist and author D’Arcy O’Connor narrates the genesis and rise to power of one of Montreal’s most powerful, violent and colorful criminal organizations. It is the West End Gang, whose members controlled the docks and fought the Hells Angels and Mafia for their share of the city’s prostitution, gambling, loan sharking and drug dealing. At times, they did not disdain forging alliances with rival gangs when huge profits were at stake, or when a killing needed to be carried out. The West End Gang—the Irish Mafia of Montreal—is a legendary beast. They sprang out of the impoverished southwest of the city, some looking for ways to earn enough just to survive, some wanting more than a job in an abattoir or on a construction site. In that sense, they were no different from other immigrants from Italy and other European countries. A shortcut to wealth was their common goal. And Montreal, with its burgeoning post-WWII population, was ripe for the picking. The Irish Mob made headlines with a spectacular Brinks robbery in 1976, using the money to broker a major heroin and cocaine trafficking ring. It took over the Port of Montreal, controlling the flow of drugs into the city, drugs which the Mafia funnelled to New York. The West End Gang had connections to the cocaine cartel in Colombia; hashish brokers in Morocco and France; and marijuana growers in Mexico. The gang imported drugs on an enormous scale. One bust that took place off the coast of Angola in 2006 involved 22.5 tonnes of hashish, destined for Montreal. The West End Gang is a ripping tale that unveils yet another chapter in Montreal’s colorful criminal underworld.

Social media is coming for you? ready or not. It might be a viral video or a rogue employee or a media query.Or it could be the POTUS, singling out your company in a 2 a.m. Twitter rant.So this little book will answer some big questions: Why does social media matter for CEOs and how do I do it right?

For years, the DeCavalcantes, the most powerful Mob family in Jersey, labored in the shadows of the more famous families in New York—the likes of the Gambinos and the Columbos. Dismissed by the big-city capos, the DeCavalcantes finally came into their own when they found their lives mirrored in the television hit, The Sopranos. Overnight it legitimized the made men of the Garden State. Now they were a familia to be reckoned with. Unfortunately with high profile came high risk. As member turned against member, as trusted friend turned terrified informant, the FBI put the brakes on the DeCavalcante’s explosive ride into infamy, hastening a fall from honor that would become as infamous as their notorious ascension into the annals of organized crime. Based on more than 1,000 hours of secretly recorded conversations, Made Men delivers for the first time, the unprecedented and completely uncensored behind-the-scenes truth of a historically clandestine world—of violent life and sudden death inside and outside the mob, told by the very men who made it.

Doping is as old as organized sports. From baseball to horse racing, cycling to track and field, drugs have been used to enhance performance for 150 years. For much of that time, doping to do better was expected. It was doping to throw a game that stirred outrage. Today, though, athletes are vilified for using performance-enhancing drugs. Damned as moral deviants who shred the fair-play fabric, dopers are an affront to the athletes who don’t take shortcuts. But this tidy view swindles sports fans. While we may want the world sorted into villains and victims, putting the blame on athletes alone ignores decades of history in which teams, coaches, governments, the media, scientists, sponsors, sports federations, and even spectators have played a role. The truth about doping in sports is messy and shocking because it holds a mirror to our own reluctance to spit in the soupthat is, to tell the truth about the spectacle we crave. In Spitting in the Soup, sports journalist Mark Johnson explores how the deals made behind closed doors keep drugs in sports. Johnson unwinds the doping culture from the early days, when pills meant progress, and uncovers the complex relationships that underlie elite sports culturethe essence of which is not to play fair but to push the boundaries of human performance. It’s easy to assume that drugs in sports have always been frowned upon, but that’s not true. Drugs in sports are old. It’s banning drugs in sports that is new. Spitting in the Soup offers a bitingly honest, clear-eyed look at why that’s so, and what it will take to kick pills out of the locker room once and for all.

He's sailed the seven seas and explored unknown lands, fought countless monsters and battled evil wizards, but Sinbad's newest adventure may be the greatest, and most dangerous, he's ever had! Eight years have passed since the assassination of the benevolent Zhar Dadgar and the curious disappearance of his heir. Akhdar, Dadgar's villainous nephew, has usurped the Dozhakian throne and enslaved the Azurian people, igniting a civil war within the once peaceful kingdom. A prophecy foretells the coming of a stranger from a distant land who will vanquish the false king and restore the rightful ruler to the throne. Could Sinbad be that stranger, or is he merely a pawn in Akhdar's treacherous game.