Former FBI agent Joe Pistone told the Charbonneau Commission that his superior, or underboss, in New York's Bonanno crime family, Carmine Galenti, would regularly travel to Montreal to hold discussions with the Cotroni family.

He described the Montreal Cotronis as an independent unit with an association with the Bonannos.

That association could at times mean, having a Montreal mafia associate or member act as a hitman for the New York based Bonannos.

"This was back in the late seventies. Late seventies and early eighties," he said. "He said, he would come up here with [Carmine] Galenti for purpose of Galenti meeting with the Cotronis to do business and that they were associated with the Bonannos."

Pistone masqueraded as a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco to infiltrate the New York mafia between 1976 and 1981.

His undercover work ultimately led to the arrest and conviction of about 200 American mafiosi.