62 Facts About Nick Nero

Nick Nero was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario into an Italian-Canadian family.

Nick Nero was described by one high school classmate as "dumb as a bag of hair", but very ambitious and full of rage.

Nick Nero took to bodybuilding and steroid abuse as a teenager as it was his ambition to become a professional wrestler, whose ring-name was to be "Iron Man".

Nick Nero told the reporter Wade Hemsworth of The Hamilton Spectator that he could bench-press 600 pounds and spoke of his desire to be Canada's greatest professional wrestler.

In 2003, Nick Nero placed 7th in the super-heavyweight division of the Canadian Bodybuilder Federation's championships.

Nick Nero was convicted of theft, but his share of the robbery, namely $1 million, was never recovered.

Nick Nero used his robbery proceeds to enter the cocaine smuggling business in partnership with a Hells Angel, Zavisa "Zav" Drecic.

Nick Nero was convicted in 2007 of trafficking in 9 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of hashish, 340 oxycodone pills, 200 Viagra pills and 468 liter of GHB on the basis of what Atwell's wire recorded Nick Nero buying from him in 2005 and 2006.

The fact that Nick Nero refused the Crown's offers of a plea bargain where he would testify against his Hells Angels associates improved his reputation in the underworld as someone who could be trusted not to turn informer.

The Canadian journalist Peter Edwards and the Mexican journalist Luis Najera wrote that Nick Nero immediately went about violating all of his parole conditions after his release on 3 November 2009.

Nick Nero's request to join the Mafia was refused under the grounds that he was a "heat score", but Caputo went into business with him.

Nick Nero was in charge of smuggling cocaine into the Niagara Peninsula from Buffalo, New York as part of the Wolfpack Alliance.

Nick Nero made an average profit of CA$1 million in cash for every 30 kilograms of cocaine he sold, which made him a wealthy man, although he always felt he was not making enough money.

Nick Nero had become of the most important cocaine smugglers in Canada, bringing in an average of 400 kilograms of cocaine per week into the Niagara Peninsula via boats and trucks.

In 2011, Nick Nero had met Tawnya Del Ben Fletcher, a young woman from a wealthy family at a gym in Niagara Falls and started to date her.

In October 2011, Nick Nero became engaged to Fletcher, a much younger woman at the age of 27 with an MBA who turned down admission to a medical school in Australia to live with him.

Nick Nero lived in a St Catharines half-way house from Sunday to Thursday and a place of his choosing on Fridays and Saturdays per his parole conditions.

Nick Nero never admitted his relationship with Fletcher to the parole board, which reflected his tendency to hide as much as possible about what he was doing from the parole board.

Nick Nero had plans to expand his cocaine distribution business into Europe, developing a network of contacts in Germany and Greece with the aim of becoming Europe's top cocaine distributor.

The neighbors reported that both Fletcher and Nick Nero "kept to themselves".

The police suspected that Nick Nero did not intend to abide by his parole conditions as he violated his bail conditions.

The police started an investigation of Nick Nero dubbed Project Ink.

The police wiretaps of Fletcher's condo that she shared with Nick Nero revealed that Fletcher was the more intelligent of the couple as she tried hard to assist her fiancee with becoming a successful gangster, using her business acumen.

Nick Nero agreed with her as he expressed his utter contempt for people who lived honestly as "deadbeats" and told Fletcher that she was lucky to be engaged to a gangster who lived dishonestly and committed the "extra special" crimes that allowed her to live the lavish lifestyle that he told her that she deserved.

In March 2012, Caputo ordered Nick Nero to stop driving his Ferrari and Maserati, saying he was attracting too much attention, forcing Nick Nero to reluctantly drive a 2001 Yukon Denali SUV.

Nick Nero, who was very status-conscious, was deeply humiliated by the order, as the police wiretaps recorded Nick Nero cursing his Yukon Denali as a vehicle unworthy of him and expressing the desire to show off by driving either his Ferrari or Maserati again.

One of Nick Nero's Wolfpack associates was a Croat immigrant, Nebojsa Dronjak, the director of a luxury automobile dealership in Port Robinson turned cocaine dealer.

Nick Nero was a frequent customer at Dronjak's dealership and joined the Wolfpack after Nick Nero boasted to him about the profits to be made via smuggling cocaine.

The friendship between Dronjak and Nick Nero proved to be facile.

Nick Nero told Fletcher he was too afraid to admit to the other Wolfpack members his ignorance of chemistry out of the fear of appearing stupid.

Nick Nero had plans to import $2 billion worth of cocaine into Canada per year as he told Fletcher that he wanted to be the biggest cocaine dealer in Canada.

Nick Nero constantly accused other members of the Wolfpack and the Sinaloa Cartel of cheating him, making accusations of diluting the cocaine he was buying, which vexed his business partners to no end, all the more so as Nick Nero had no proof for his accusations.

In one of his texts, Nick Nero wrote to the car dealer-turned-drug dealer Alfonso "Al" Inclima on 2 May 2012 that the Air Canada airline was deeply corrupt and it was possible for the Wolfpack to smuggle a shipment of cocaine worth CA$750,000 via Air Canada per week into Toronto.

Nick Nero discovered that the Sinaloa Cartel often shipped white bricks designed to look like cocaine as a way to test the competence of the smugglers and much to his fury learned that Sinaloa Cartel would not refund him for the 13 kilograms he paid for that were in fact baking soda.

Nick Nero wanted to smuggle cocaine into Shanghai and asked Inclima to find some corrupt aircrews flying to Shanghai who were willing to work for him.

Nick Nero was in contact via texting with someone who called themselves "Brazil lover" to smuggle cocaine into Rio de Janeiro.

Nick Nero planned to sell the more impure cocaine he imported in Toronto, as he stated that most Torontonian drug dealers were lax about testing the cocaine he sold them while he insisted that only the purest cocaine go to Montreal as drug dealers there always tested the quality of the cocaine before buying it.

Finally, Nick Nero texted Caputo to ask him to teach how to test the purity of cocaine he was buying.

Notably, Nick Nero tended to be submissive in his texts to the Hells Angel Larry Amero and Shane "Wheels" Maloney, the boss of the West End Gang as the Hells Angels control the port of Vancouver while the West End Gang controls the port of Montreal.

Nick Nero told Fletcher that he was going to dispose of Inclima and appoint a new agent for dealing with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Nick Nero claimed in his texts to have purchased the services of the crew of an Air Canada passenger jet to smuggle cocaine from Mexico into Toronto.

Caputo in his texts to Nick Nero expressed much hatred of Raposo as well as made numerous disparaging remarks about him from April 2012 onward and promoted the thesis that Raposo was an informer.

Nick Nero always regarded Caputo as the best man to sponsor him to join the Wolfpack elite.

Nick Nero constantly needed encouragement and support from Caputo and on 28 April 2012 texted him: "I could really use a hug from u [you] rite [right] now".

Nick Nero complained to Caputo about having to pay a "work tax" to the Musitano brothers of Hamilton, charging that the Musitanos took it as their right to have a share of his profits because he operated in Niagara peninsula without ever doing anything on his behalf.

Nick Nero asked Caputo to speak with the Musitano brothers to reduce their "work tax"; unknown to him, "Fat Pat" Musitano was still angry with Caputo for not financially supporting his wife and children while he was in prison.

Nick Nero became convinced that Raposo was an informer and starting on 28 April 2012 started to send texts to Alkhalil demanding that Raposo be murdered.

Nick Nero believed that a hostile audit of him by the Canada Revenue Agency started that spring was due to Raposo informing on him.

Nick Nero had only met Raposo a few times, but was consumed with hatred for him, obsessively sending Alkhalil texts from April 2012 onward demanding that Raposo be killed.

Nick Nero requested that Caputo send pictures of Raposo's son from the baptism to the hitman.

The other two men Nick Nero wanted killed he referred to as "Polish" and "DC".

On 17 May 2012, Nick Nero sent Alkhalil a text that accused him without evidence of diluting the cocaine he was buying from Montreal.

Alkhalil hinted that if Nick Nero kept making these accusations he would have him killed.

On 23 May 2012, Nick Nero was arrested at the St Catharines half-way house without incident as the supposed "tough guy" Nick Nero offered no resistance.

The status-conscious Nick Nero cried uncontrollably for hours when he learned that he had lost forever his three prized Italian sports cars.

Nick Nero wrote down his password and email address which was found on another sticky pad note placed next to his laptop computer.

On 20 February 2013, Nick Nero was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Raposo's slaying.

On September 9,2014, Nick Nero was convicted of drug trafficking, gangsterism and living off the proceeds of crime.

Justice John McMahon in sentencing him stated "Mr Nick Nero made a mockery of our parole system" as he noted that Nick Nero was on parole while he was a Wolfpack member who was importing millions of dollars worth of cocaine.

On 11 May 2017, Wiwchar, Caputo, Alkhalil and Nick Nero were all found guilty of first-degree murder in Toronto in connection with Raposo's murder in 2012.

Nick Nero was attacked in prison by another prisoner who tried to kill him with a home-made knife.

The attempt failed, but the one of Nick Nero's eyeballs was ripped out from the socket, leaving him blind in one eye.