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Montreal's Bloody Mafia War Won't End

Since mafia don Vito Rizzuto went to jail, things in Montreal's once-mighty criminal underworld have gone to hell. Assassinations by sniper, brazen day-light murders, and massive police busts have kneecapped the Italian mob. But it's not dead yet.
June 2, 2016, 6:20pm
Le cercueil de Nick Rizzuto, le fils de Vito, en 2010. (Canadian Press/Paul Chiasson)





It's unclear exactly which organization is behind the current spate of violence, but, as one mafia expert told VICE News: "That group, whoever it is, appears to be much stronger."

Police search Rocco Sollecito's SUV in Laval, where his body was found. (Canadian Pres/Graham Hughes)

Leadership Woes

On the wiretap recording, Francesco del Balso's voice is calm.

"I want my fucking money today or Lorenzo said he's gonna grab you, he's gonna fucking turn you into a pretzel. And don't fuck with him, bro.

"Listen to me, go get 112 dimes and save yourself a beating of your life."

This is how the Montreal mafia's version of a collections agency works.

At the time of the recording, Del Balso was a notorious bookmaker and high-ranking member of Montreal's infamous Rizzuto crime family. The Lorenzo on the tape was presumably Lorenzo Giordano, a close associate of Del Balso and the capo considered to be the de facto leader of the family for a time.

The Rizzuto family is an organization so powerful during the rule of former leader Vito Rizzuto that it often drew comparisons to the fabled "Five Families" that controlled New York during the city's mafia heyday. The FBI still considers the Rizzuto syndicate to be a wing of the New York-based Bonanno crime family.




The mobsters were eventually released from prison, and, one by one, they each wound up dead. Sollecito is just the most recent. The killings started not long after Rizzuto's confession in 2007 that he was involved in the murder of three rival mobsters. Vito died of natural causes in 2013, making him one of the few in the family to die peacefully.

Vito Rizzuto, pictured bottom left, at a stag party. Juan Ramon Fernandez, bottom right, was killed in Sicily in 2013 in an ambush. Photo via The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto by Adrian Humphreys.

In December 2009, gunmen killed Vito's son Nicolo Rizzuto, Jr. in broad daylight on a sidewalk in Montreal's west end. The following year, a sniper perched in a tree shot and kill his grandfather, Nick Sr., while he sat at his kitchen table.



Police figure that the one trying to broker the new leadership for the family was Salvatore "The Iron Worker" Montagna, a one-time leader of the New York-based Bonanno family, who was deported back to Montreal in 2009.

In 2011, he was gunned down in a residential neighborhood on Montreal's north shore — but his would-be assassins were sloppy. He survived and jumped into the freezing Assomption River, washing up a few minutes later on a small island, where police found him bleeding to death in the snow.


In March 2016, months after Giordano's release from prison to a halfway house, police in Laval responded to a report of gunshots outside a gym near the highway. They found him sitting in his car, sporting multiple fresh bullet holes.


Virtually the only high-ranking figures in the organization who aren't dead are in jail.

Police figure, most recently, leadership of the family was split between Sollecito's son, Stefano, and Montreal lawyer Leonardo Rizzuto, Vito's second son. Canadian authorities arrested both men late last year.





But with Vito gone, things fell apart.




Related: Cops 'Decapitate' Montreal Mafia, Hells Angels, and Street Gangs in One Big Bust











In 2012 alone, organized crime were responsible for 18 of the city's 35 homicides, according to the city's police department.

'Someone Always Takes Over'


"They constantly replace themselves," said Marcel Danis, a professor who teaches a course on organized crime at Concordia University who also works as a criminal defense attorney, and has represented members of various crime factions. "They're quite strong and we can see by the most recent police arrests, there's still an alliance between the Hells [Angels] and the mafia."



"I think what we're seeing is the gradual elimination of what was left of the Rizzuto family and obviously an attempt by some group to take over," said Danis. "That group, whoever it is, appears to be much stronger."

"The Rizzuto crime family is facing a challenge," added Nicaso. "There are people in the organization probably trying to make a move. There are other organizations trying to muscle in and to position them in a different criminal landscape."


The Rizzutos leave the funeral of Nicolo Rizzuto Jr.. Leonardo Rizzuto, centre, is said to have taken over the crime family after his father's death. (Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

"There are people coming out of jail and there are people outside of jail," said Nicaso. "The people outside of jail won't allow the people coming from jail to lead the organization."


According to Danis, the single sniper shot that took out Nick Rizzuto Sr. in his home indicates that the powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta — pushed out of Montreal in the '80s in a violent turf war — was looking to make a comeback. Rizzuto's death, at home in front of his wife, closely resembles how the Rizzutos took out a Calabrian figure during their rise to prominence, Danis said.

"There's a parallel there," the organized crime expert said. "And whoever shot Rizzuto was a professional killer. The gun was in the woods in the back of the house. He'd have to be a super shot to do that. When you look at who might have killed him, you come to the conclusion it was not a street gang, it was not the Hells [Angels]."


"Somebody always takes over," said Danis. "Always."

Follow Adam Kovac on Twitter: @AdamJKovac