Eight years after being arrested in a major police investigation against organized crime, then acquitted, Leonardo Rizzuto, youngest son of the former godfather of the Montreal mafia, Vito Rizzuto, can now recover several items seized from his home in 2015, including one sum of $55,000.
On the other hand, two semi-automatic pistols from the Walther P99 caliber.40 and Browning brands, a magazine containing seven bullets, 45 caliber.40 projectiles and around fifteen small Ziploc-type bags containing a white powdery substance were confiscated from the profits. of the Attorney General of Quebec to possibly be destroyed.
Between 2013 and 2015, investigators from the Montreal Regional Mixed Squad (ERM) and their colleagues from the Proceeds of Crime of the Sûreté du Québec targeted several individuals, including Rizzuto, suspected of being at the head of an alliance mafia-biker-gang that ruled organized crime at the time.
On November 19, 2015, after obtaining a search warrant, investigators searched his Laval residence.
Since Rizzuto has the title of lawyer, the sleuths were accompanied by representatives of the Syndic of the Bar during the search, and they seized from his home the two pistols, the small bags containing substances and other objects.
Illegal eavesdropping
Rizzuto was arrested and charged with gangsterism, drug trafficking conspiracy, weapons possession and substance possession following the Magot-Mastiff investigation.
Part of the evidence against the youngest son of the former godfather was based on a conversation captured in the conference room of the office of ex-criminalist Loris Cavaliere.
A judge later ruled, however, that the conversation had been illegally intercepted by police, and Leonardo Rizzuto was initially acquitted of charges of gangsterism and drug conspiracy.
In February 2019, a judge concluded that the items seized from his home had been obtained in violation of his rights; the search warrant therefore became void, the Prosecution declared that it had no further evidence to offer and Rizzuto was acquitted of the other counts of possession of weapons and substances.
The Prosecution then turned to the Court of Appeal which dismissed it. These other procedures completed in 2021 explain, in part, why it is only today that the items seized from his home can be confiscated or returned to him.
Four phones
These assets remained in the custody of a sheriff throughout the years, including a sealed envelope containing items that Rizzuto argued were protected by privilege.
In addition to a sum of $55,000 ($30,255 in Canadian money and $18,490 in American money), the authorities also gave Rizzuto four cell phones, two USB keys, several electronic devices, a document with the heading Resto Bar Romcafé , a handwritten note displaying the words cc Mayer Lawee, a check for $50,000, several bank deposit statements and a DVD titled Republic vacation Vito and friends (Vito and his friends on vacation in the Dominican Republic).
Leonardo Rizzuto, who has no criminal history, is still considered by the police as one of the leaders of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia.
He was shot while driving his car on Highway 440 in Laval in mid-March.
A former lieutenant of the clan, suspected by the police of having organized this attack, Francesco Del Balso, was murdered by gunfire on June 5 in the west of Montreal.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.