Couple fleeing Mafia in Italy are now hiding from Canada’s immigration officials instead

He routinely switches false beards, moustaches and hairstyles, even fake tattoos. She swaps wigs, scarves, glasses. Both have a catalog of ‘fantasy names’

he Demitris and their four children are evading deportation from Canada to Italy. Their request for refugee protection status in Canada has not gone well

Three times the Demitri family frantically abandoned their home and fled. Twice was in Italy, fearing the Mafia. The third time, in May, was in Toronto, running from Canadian immigration officers.

They’ve lived in hiding ever since.

“It is weird when you are hiding from an officer instead of someone from the Mafia, because you would expect to be hiding from the bad guys. Now, the bad guys are people who should be the good guys,” said the mother of four children who, along with her husband, sought refugee protection in Canada in 2013.

The Demitris, both in their 40s, came out of hiding — wearing disguises as they travelled — to tell their dramatic story.

She is a child of the Mafia. Although born into the high echelons of a notorious crime clan in southern Italy, she turned her back on their underworld traditions at a young age, she said.

The Demitri family spoke to the National Post on condition their first names not be published and the last name of her crime family not be used.

It is the kind of subterfuge they are accustomed to.

He routinely switches false beards, moustaches and hairstyles, even fake tattoos. She swaps wigs, scarves, glasses. Both have a catalog of “fantasy names,” as she calls them.

“I have to write down which name I used and which wig I was wearing when I meet people,” she said. “This is what we have been doing day by day for almost six years.”

Her father’s brother was a boss of the Sacra Corona Unita, a powerful Mafia group in southern Italy. Although less known than similar syndicates, such as Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, the Sacra Corona retains a strong grip on Puglia, the heel of the boot-shaped map of Italy.

Her father, mother, brothers, uncles, cousins, “all chose that life,” she said. “I have maintained a distance for a long time.