HUNTER: Was Milton casino heist a new organized crime precursor?

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At first blush, the two alleged crimes appear nickel-and-dime.

But behind the penny-ante veneer could be something far more sinister.

Halton cops said on Sept. 2, two men broke into a parked vehicle in suburban Milton. The take was apparently an undisclosed amount of cash and a few other valuables. So what, right?

Seized a stolen Glock 17, rifle, ammo

Back in Milton the next day, the thieves allegedly hit the Elements Casino. There, the duo allegedly stole cash from a till, fleeing when confronted by casino security. Cops executed a search warrant at a North York residence and the two suspects were arrested.

Investigators seized a stolen Glock 17, three loaded magazines and a Norinco rifle with two loaded magazines. None of the charges have been proven in court.

Hammered with a slew of theft and weapons charges are Iraklii Shariia, 38, and Davit Kukhilava, 47. Shariia was born in Georgia in the former USSR and has Ukrainian citizenship, slipping into Canada on the “wonderful open work permit,” a Canadian Border Services Agency source told the Toronto Sun.

‘Presented himself as undocumented’

“As for the other sack of s–t he was denied a visa in 2025 in Ankara, Turkey in January. So he came back via France, most likely on a fake French passport, but presented himself as undocumented,” the source said. “He made a bulls–t refugee claim. In these cases either the passport is handed back to the smuggler, who is on the plane, so he can recycle the passport, or it’s destroyed on the plane.”

The CBSA source revealed that Canada has a “serious and growing Georgian organized crime problem.” Just ask York Regional Police.

Twenty individuals were swept up in Project Dusk linked to 47 residential burglaries that netted the thieves more than $2 million in cash and stolen goods. Georgians, other Eastern Europeans and Latin Americans were at the head of the class.

Earlier, YRP and CBSA agents targeted suspects — such as Zuraibi Qachlishvili, Anzori Mefaridze, and Nikoloz Saltkhutsishvili — charged with participating in criminal organizations and running high-end residential break-and-enter sprees.

Eastern European criminal syndicates are fluid

Queen’s University professor Antonio Nicaso, one of the world’s foremost experts on organized crime, said Georgian gangsters are “part of a broader criminal tradition that developed in the former Soviet Union and subsequently expanded across national borders.”

Speaking to the Toronto Sun from Europe, Nicaso said the latest incarnation can be traced to the Soviet criminal underworld.

“Particularly the institution of the vory v zakone, or thieves-in-law, a category of criminal figures whose authority historically rested on recognition within the underworld rather than on formal positions in a conventional hierarchical organization,” Nicaso said.

“Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these criminal networks increasingly developed international connections. Georgian criminal figures became particularly influential within this environment, although the thieves-in-law tradition extends well beyond Georgia and should not be understood as an exclusively Georgian phenomenon.”

Rare book heist worth $4 million

Georgian organized crime is more fluid and less structured than the traditional Italian mob. For starters, their felonious playing field is more international.

“One of the defining characteristics of contemporary organized crime is that criminal authority and criminal activity no longer need to exist in the same geographical location,” Nicaso said. “A network can operate in one country while maintaining relationships with individuals who exercise influence from another.”

Nicaso pointed out that Georgians are eyed in the 2024 robbery of 170 rare books from European libraries valued at nearly $4 million. He cautioned it remains to be seen whether the Georgian mafia is operating as an organization in Canada.

“If Canadian authorities have identified individuals connected to Georgian organized crime, the crucial question is whether they are acting independently or operating as part of a wider transnational network,” Nicaso said. “We need to move beyond the idea that organized crime can be understood simply by identifying where its members live.”

Still, Georgian organized crime groups in Canada “would be consistent with the wider internationalization of organized criminal activity.”

He added: “The real challenge for law enforcement is not simply to identify suspected criminals operating within Canada, but to determine whether their activities are connected to structures of criminal authority elsewhere. Understanding those connections is often the key to understanding the organization itself.”

Buckle up.

bhunter@postmedia.com

On X: @HunterTOSun

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