A new war of power, a conflict between two Montreal organized crime groups or a one-time settling of scores. Very smart who can, for the moment, explain what is hidden behind the attempted murder against Leonardo Rizzuto.
Since the spectacular event perpetrated in broad daylight on Wednesday, both in the criminal and police communities, La Presse sources have generally expressed surprise at this attack on the youngest son of the former godfather of the Montreal mafia.
Leonardo Rizzuto is not his father, Vito, who ruled the mafia with an iron fist in a velvet glove for at least ten years. He ruled from the mid-1990s until his arrest in 2004 for the 1981 New York City murders of three Bonanno clan rebel lieutenants.
Released from American jails in the fall of 2012, Vito Rizzuto once again became the godfather of the mafia in early 2013, but organized crime in Montreal had changed a lot during his absence. He died of natural causes a few months later.
But even though he no longer has the luster of yesteryear, Rizzuto is still an influential name in the Montreal Mafia.
Leonardo Rizzuto is perhaps above all now the symbol of a family to whom some would like to indicate that his reign is over. A new war of power, therefore. But does Leonardo Rizzuto hold the power? Both in the criminal world and in the police world, we are told no.
Unless Wednesday’s attack is the continuity and the logical continuation of the events of 2009-2010, when the eldest son of Vito Rizzuto, the one who could have taken over from him, Nick Rizzuto, was eliminated, followed by his beau -brother and consigliere of the clan, Paolo Renda, then of Vito’s father and former godfather, Nicolo Rizzuto.
This is a hypothesis, perhaps a little easy, that the investigators will certainly look at all the same, but there are others.
Since the natural death of Vito Rizzuto in December 2013, there is no longer a mafia godfather.
According to our sources, no one, not even Leonardo, would want the big chair, because a leader becomes a target in the context of contemporary Montreal organized crime marked periodically by tensions.
Not only is the mafia no longer at the top, but we also prefer to speak now of “Montreal organized crime”, that is to say that members of all stripes, mafia, bikers or gangs, some of whom are more influential, mingle and help each other with one common goal: to make money.
These influential members have managed, at least since 2014, to maintain relative peace, apart from a few sporadic settling of scores and an abortive putsch attempt led by the Scoppa brothers, from Calabria, in 2016.
Except that the fact that there is no longer a leader to impose respect may be starting to be felt.
For months now, sources have been telling us that influential members of organized crime are going too far and are starting to make people unhappy.
It is perhaps in this context that Francesco Del Balso, former lieutenant of the Sicilian clan, arrested and sentenced in the historic Coliseum anti-Mafia raid, and now close to influential Hells Angels, has recently been the victim of at least one attempt to murder, one of which, spectacular, occurred near his home, in Laval, last November.
We can find, within the same group, individuals from all these allegiances who have more affinities and business ties.
If the fire takes place within this mosaic of mixed individuals and groups, will it smother itself or turn into a blaze?
Could the ongoing investigation surrounding former hitman Frédérick Silva, which is making several members of organized crime nervous, exacerbate possible conflicts and fan hot embers?
The next attack, if there is one, could allow us to answer this question. But organized crime has no interest in getting into a major conflict because it hurts business and puts the police spotlight on them.
But while the Rizzuto name no longer commands respect at its peak, the family and its allies still have influence and means, and our sources expect that Wednesday’s affront will not go unpunished.
As has been cyclically predicted for several decades, the spring could be warm.
