Auditore crime family

The Auditore crime family (also known as the Cascadia family or the Northwest Outfit) is an organised crime group based in the Pacific Northwest, with major operations on either side of the US–Canada international border, concentrated primarily in the urban agglomeration centred on the cities of Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. The organisation has been led by Italian-Canadian Sal Auditore since 1991. The Auditore family maintains a virtual monopoly on drug trafficking and the illegal arms trade in the Pacific Northwest: it controls the ports of Vancouver and Seattle, and the more powerful street gangs of the region distribute drugs exclusively for the Auditore organisation. The family also oversees large-scale racketeering, money laundering and enforcement operations, and through its associates indirectly owns several legitimate businesses primarily in the food service and hospitality, real estate, construction and transportation industries, as well as multiple commercial and residential properties.

The Auditore organisation's most important international allies are the Sinaloa Cartel, the Yakuza, the Russian Mob and the 'Ndrangheta, the last of which was formerly a competitor prior to the Auditores' 1991 falling out with the Sicilian Mafia (their former main ally, of which the Auditore family was originally a franchise), a longtime enemy of the 'Ndrangheta. The organisation is nonetheless true to its roots, its members (made men) almost exclusively of Sicilian or Italian descent (though associates can be of any ethnic heritage); members and associates also refer to the organisation as Cosa Nostra (lit. "our thing") as per Sicilian Mafia tradition. The primary headquarters of the Auditore crime family is purported to be located above the Vesper Lounge in Vancouver's Little Italy. The Lower Mainland Constabulary estimates the Auditore organisation's size at approximately 1100, with an additional at least 3000 associates. It is considered to be the wealthiest and most powerful organised crime group operating in Canada and the Western United States.