Original Gangsters Podcast · Original Gangsters, a True Crime Talk Podcast

Undercover in Canada: Infiltrating the Mob and Police Corruption with former Hamilton Police Officer Paul Manning

·53 min·3 clips

A lost Ontario Provincial Police laptop exposed Manning’s undercover credentials and home address.

1. Original Gangsters Podcast focuses on Paul Manning’s undercover work against the Magadino crime family and related crews in Hamilton, Ontario. 2. Host Scott Bernstein introduces Manning as a former Great Britain law-enforcement officer and a “mob buster” with rare interviews. 3. Manning frames the episode around his journey from the military police at 18 to undercover policing in the United Kingdom and Canada. 4. He says his early work included Northern Ireland, general police duties, covert operations, surveillance, counterintelligence, and training for MI5 and other agencies. 5. Manning explains that he joined the Met in 1998 and moved straight into undercover work while still reporting to professional standards. 6. He says Hamilton work began with nuisance premises like the Stout Sun Bar, described as a crack house, and Up In Smoke, which he says was connected to Mark Emery’s circle. 7. Manning says the investigation then moved into James Street North and the Italian community, where he dealt with the Papalias, the Violas, the Mustanos, and the Pinos. 8. He says Don Viola was “probably the smartest criminal I’ve ever met in 30 years” and describes him as an accidental contact who was still extremely difficult to infiltrate. 9. Manning says Andrew, nicknamed “Repeat,” was the person he used when he wanted information to spread quickly through the Hamilton underworld. 10. He says the Mustanos were the main operational target, and he describes Angelo and Pat Mustano as men inside for a homicide-related case involving Johnny Papalia. 11. Manning says the Mustano operation was supposed to continue until October 10, 2006, but was compromised around September 20, 2006. 12. He says the breach came from an Ontario Provincial Police laptop that held both undercover credentials and his home address, which he found uniquely reckless. 13. Manning says the laptop was stolen from a parking lot in Orillia, later bought back off the Bloods in Toronto, and treated as an intelligence treasure trove. 14. He says the compromise led to tactical police outside his house, family visiting from the UK, and a same-day removal from Canada. 15. Manning says he suspected the operation was being sold out by April 2006 because criminals warned him to be careful and a camera had been placed across from an Italian club. 16. He says he was running multiple operations at once, including the Hells Angels, Bloods, Crips, Pinos, and Violas, and that people knew him as “the Englishman.” 17. The conversation turns combative and specific when Bernstein asks about corruption, witness deaths, and the pace of racketeering trials in Buffalo and Western New York. 18. Manning answers in a blunt, procedural style, saying organized-crime cases move slowly, discovery takes years, and witnesses and lawyers often shape the case strategy. 19. People interested in Hamilton, Buffalo, organized crime, undercover policing, and police corruption would get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for light banter, short-form analysis, or a non-technical crime discussion may skip it.

As heard by us

A brisk Canadian mob story told by the cop who lived inside it.

Original Gangsters follows Paul Manning, the British-born undercover cop whose path runs from the UK to Canada and into the Magadino crime family, including the Hamilton wing in Ontario.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a Canadian mob map from someone who worked undercover in the Magadino crime family's Hamilton, Ontario wing.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Original Gangsters Podcast