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The police theory is that someone threw the Molotov at the front windows but the window failed to break, leaving the petrol and the flames outside, melting only plastic patio furniture on the sidewalk and scorching the facade.

The suspect or suspects then fled.

No one was inside at the time and no injuries were reported. But it could have been far worse had a firebomb broken the window and set the interior ablaze. The club is part of a long, shared, commercial stretch not far from the Highway 400 and 407 interchange.

The club is named after the town of Grotteria in Calabria, a southern region of Italy, where many of its members and founders hail from.

The club is registered to Giuseppe Andriano, 67, of Vaughan.

Andriano, often known by his nickname Joe, is described in several court, police and tribunal files — in Canada and in Italy — as being involved with the ’Ndrangheta, the proper name of the powerful Mafia of Calabria.

A York police report filed in an immigration review for another man says Andriano and an associate are “long time high ranking members of the Calabrian Mafia.”

He is listed by prosecutors in Italy as a boss of a Toronto-area ’Ndrangheta clan, one of seven clans named in the 2010 court filing.

The same Italian probe led to the arrest and imprisonment of Andriano’s brother, Emilio, who was sentenced to six years in prison for Mafia association.

Also charged in that case was Carmelo Bruzzese — another relative of Andriano’s. Bruzzese was called the head of the ’Ndrangheta clan based in Grotteria, the town the club was named after. Bruzzese was arrested in Canada in 2013 at his home in Vaughan, Ont., and deported to Italy just last month, where he was arrested.