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You’re a Cop and Your Brother Has Ties to the Mob. How Far Would You Go to Protect Him?

The true story of how a murdered father tested the limits of family loyalty

You’re a Cop and Your Brother Has Ties to the Mob. How Far Would You Go to Protect Him?

The true story of how a murdered father tested the limits of family loyalty

BY RACHEL BROWNE AND BRIAN FITZPATRICK

Published 6:30, JUNE 17, 2026

Just after noon on January 18, 2021, two people wearing medical face masks forced their way into a red-brick home on the quiet residential street of Harvest Moon Drive in Bolton, Ontario. Inside, they shot several rounds at a man who lived there, Giovanni Costa, also known as John, as well as his son, Michael Costa.

The assailants fled in a black BMW 3 Series sedan. Shortly after, police cruisers and ambulances descended on the neighbourhood. Giovanni, sixty-five, was pronounced dead at the scene. Michael was injured and taken to hospital but survived and was released.

The arrival and departure of the killers was recorded on a surveillance camera that would later be revealed to have been strategically placed by police on a nearby telephone pole, suggesting authorities were anticipating trouble at the Costa home. It was likely that Michael, who had a deep criminal history and no regular employment, was the real target of the shooting and not his father, according to law enforcement sources.

Giovanni’s death was the culmination of a decade of turmoil for the Costa family and once more put the spotlight on his son, Michael, who has been connected to a trail of chaos and criminality across the Greater Toronto Area. Just two months before the shooting, he had survived a separate murder attempt when he was shot at least twice outside a cafe in Toronto. He had previously told police he had been attacked with a knife.

Michael has not faced significant criminal penalties for his numerous ties to organized crime. His brother, however—an officer with Toronto Police Service—has faced charges and disciplinary issues that have stalked him for years. Daniel Costa, an officer with the TPS’s downtown 23 Division, was charged with perjury and kicked off the force for lying to his own colleagues about Michael’s affairs.

Police sources told reporters in the aftermath of the shooting that they had previously been concerned about the company the late Giovanni kept, including being on friendly terms with people connected to the ’Ndrangheta, the now-global criminal mafia that hails from Italy’s southern Calabria region. The Costa saga raises questions about how thoroughly officers’ backgrounds and family connections are vetted.

It is also a story about two brothers who ended up walking on opposite sides of the law. One on the side of law enforcement, the other belonging to the criminal underworld trying to undermine it. Ultimately, their journeys ended up clashing, with one brother putting everything on the line to protect the other.

“I was concerned when we started making inquiries into the Costas,” one source connected to the investigation into Michael says. “Their dad wasn’t a seriously bad dude, but he was hanging around places that he shouldn’t have been. I had lots of questions about the efficacy of the background checks about [Daniel] getting into TPS. That should have come up, but it didn’t, apparently.”

The Costa family was seen as a “stereotypically loud, sometimes overbearing Italian” one, extended members of the family noted in court documents. And in a room full of loud, outspoken people, Daniel was always the quiet, sensitive, and calm one.

One cousin described Daniel in court records as having a sensitive and caring heart. Daniel had long dreamt of being a police officer and role-played being a cop even as a kid, enforcing the rules of games they were playing to make sure it was all fair. “I knew there was no job more fitting for Daniel,” his cousin wrote.

When Daniel and his siblings were under the age of fifteen, their mother, Anna, was diagnosed with leukemia. “Daniel developed a great deal of strength through this time, supporting his mother and family with the soft and caring heart we all know him to have,” court documents read. Anna eventually beat her cancer, and Daniel went on to pursue his career in policing.

Daniel met his wife in 2000. He went on to work as security at the Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. They married in 2010. Months prior to their wedding, Daniel learned that his mother’s cancer had returned; Anna died eight days before they were supposed to be married. “Our lives were truly shattered, but we picked up the pieces and carried on together,” Daniel’s wife later recalled in court records.

Shortly after, Daniel graduated from Police College, and in May 2010, he was assigned as a new recruit to 23 Division, “A” Platoon. He impressed his superiors with his ability to speak fluent Italian. But troubles for the Costa family began shortly thereafter, dating back to at least 2011.

At around 10:30 p.m. on July 2, 2011, a thirty-seven-year-old man named Alexander Kucovic was gunned down—“execution-style”—near his upscale home in Vaughan, Ontario. Kucovic was reportedly a multi-millionaire who ran a high-end jewellery store in a wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto. On the side, Kucovic imported cocaine. According to the Toronto Star, he was known to drive several high-end vehicles, including a Maserati, Bentley, Mercedes, and Lexus.

Prior to coming to Ontario, Kucovic went by Kosto Barjaktarovic and lived in Vancouver, where he stole cars to order for the Johal-Benji organized crime group, led by the brash gangster Bindy Johal, before turning against them as a witness in a 1995 Vancouver double murder case. Barjaktarovic became Kucovic, left British Columbia, and entered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police witness protection under his new name and what could have been a fresh start, the Star reported. Yet, upon moving to Ontario, Kucovic re-entered a life of crime. Within three years, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for cocaine trafficking and possession of an assault rifle.

In their investigation into Kucovic’s death, York Regional Police turned their attention to Michael, who was deemed a “person of interest” to be interviewed, though not a suspect in the murder itself. Police were eager to speak with Michael upon learning there was........

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