Accused mob boss Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino says he’s really just an almost-broke grandfather with a bad back, who couldn’t make ends meet without help from his children.

“Are you a boss?” defence lawyer Dragi Zekavica asked Ursino on Tuesday during his trial at the University Ave. courthouse in Toronto.

“Never, not even in my family,” Ursino replied.

Ursino and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 41, of Toronto, each face two charges of cocaine trafficking for the benefit of a criminal organization and one charge of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

The often-emotional testimony of Ursino, 65, marks the first time in Canada that an alleged senior member of the criminal organization ‘Ndrangheta has testified in open court, police sources said.

He was flanked by an Italian interpreter but answered in English to most of the questions posed by defence lawyers.

“Do you know any members of the ‘Ndrangheta in the GTA?,” Zekavica asked.

“No,” Ursino replied.

Carmine Guido, the star Crown witness, earlier testified that Ursino was a leading GTA ‘Ndrangheta boss who sat on the local “Camera Di Controllo,” or ruling counsel.

Ursino said he doesn’t even know any real members of the ‘Ndrangheta.

“Guido said that he worked for you. Is that true?,” Zekavica asked.

“No,” Ursino said.

Guido also described former and current GTA residents Cosimo Commisso, Frank Murdoca, Peter Scarcella, Carmine Verduci, Gianfranco Caputo, Salvatore (Sam) Calautti, Antonio and Giuseppe Coluccio and Vince Mora as members or associates of the ‘Ndrangheta.

Calautti was shot dead outside a Woodbridge banquet hall in July 2013, along with his longtime associate, James Tusek, 35.

Verduci was shot to death in April 2014 outside a Woodbridge café.

Scarcella served prison time for his role in two botched gangland hits in April 2004, which left mother-of-three Louise Russo paralyzed by a stray bullet.

Ursino denied any inside knowledge of criminal activity by those men or any others associated with the ‘Ndrangheta.

“Did you ever bring in any drugs?,” Zekavica asked.

“No,” Ursino said.

Ursino described Guido as a drug trafficker and scammer who ran illegal card games and stiffed him for $6,000 when a social club they ran together went out of business.

Ursino testified that they the club for about a year, but shut it down after Guido moved into drug trafficking.

“He started dealing with certain people with drugs,” Ursino said.

Ursino said he badly needed the $6,000 that Guido owed him. That drove Ursino to sometimes invent stories about crime so that he could stay close to Guido and hopefully collect the money he was owed, he testified.

“To make him believe me, I had to extend the conversation,” Ursino said.

“Did you ever commit any criminal activities?” Zekavica asked.

“No,” Ursino replied.

Ursino testified he drew from stories he heard through the media to create criminal scenarios that Guido might believe so that they could stay in touch and he could hopefully collect the money.

“These words only come up in my mind through French Connection movie,” Ursino testified at one point.

“I put up a story for him,” Guido said. “I just opened up a story. It’s not true.”

“He’s a troublemaker person,” Ursino said of Guido, under questioning from Dracea’s lawyer, Kathryn Wells. “He’s a liar.”

Zekavica asked if Ursino ever intended to import cocaine.

“No,” Ursino replied.

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“Did you ever traffic in cocaine?,” Zekavica asked.

“Never,” Ursino replied.

Ursino described himself as a victim of Guido’s lies.

“Most of the time he laugh at me because he fooled me,” Ursino said. “He knows I am not a boss. He knows I am not a person who commits crimes.”

Ursino said he left school after grade five in the southern Italian province of Calabria to work on the family farm.

He said he first immigrated to Canada when he was 18 to avoid compulsory service in the Italian military.

He returned several times to Italy and was arrested for “association” there in 1986 and again in 1987.

He said he didn’t know if it was for “Mafia association” or some other type of association.

He said there are five brothers and four sisters in his family.

“Of all of your brothers and sisters, how many have had trouble with the law?,” Zekavica asked.

“One,” Ursino replied. That sibling was his older brother, Antonio, who has been arrested a couple of times on charges of association, Ursino said.

Ursino described himself as a devoted family man, who drove his wife to work and his granddaughter to school.

He testified that he never made much money through his work in construction, pizza delivery, running a social club and importing foods to sell in sandwich and pizza shops. The construction work left him with a bad back, he said.

He said his food import business is so small it has no employees and little profits.

“I am alone,” Ursino said. “I don’t work with no one.”

Despite his poor profits, he didn’t move to crime, Ursino said. He appeared near tears as he spoke of help he has received from his children.

No family members were in court for his testimony.

“I was a disaster but surviving,” Ursino said. “If it wasn’t for my kids, I couldn’t even survive.”

The prosecution marks the time in Canada that the ‘Ndrangheta has been targeted as a organized crime group since belonging to a criminal organization became an offence in 1997, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said earlier in an interview.

The trial continues.