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As a Mafia boss visiting Canada from Italy met with alleged mobsters here in April, he warned them to be careful what they said because Canadian police might be listening. He should have looked more inwardly.

What was really happening, National Post can reveal, was that the visitor’s smartphone was unwittingly and secretly transmitting his closed-doors conversations to authorities in Italy.

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On Friday, Italy’s Polizia di Stato issued 16 fresh arrest warrants on top of 12 already stemming from the trip to the Toronto area — and half of those named currently live in Canada or were born here.

Photo by Polizia di Stato - supplied

The internal summaries of the police investigation, including excerpts from recorded wiretapped conversation in and around Toronto, were recently filed in court in Italy to support arrest warrants and have not yet been tested at a trial. They were translated from Italian by the Post.

The documents add further evidence to what Italian authorities call an “unbreakable umbilical cord” between the underworlds in both countries.