Leonardo Rizzuto, the youngest son of late Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto, was shot in the leg on Wednesday afternoon at the corner of highways 13 and 440 in Laval, near a funeral home, while he was in his vehicle.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) reported being called to the scene of the Alfred-Dallaire funeral complex at around 4:30 p.m. Spokesperson Stéphane Tremblay, who did not officially confirm the identity of Leonardo Rizzuto , nevertheless indicated that a person had been injured, but that there is no fear for his life. It would be a drive by shooting, according to our information. He was accompanied by another person at the time of being targeted. The vehicle Rizzuto was in then drove to the funeral home.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
The scene of the shooting, at the corner of highways 13 and 440 in Laval
Highway 440 was closed to traffic in the area to allow investigators to establish a scene. The Major Crimes Section took charge of the investigation.
However, police sources confirmed to The Press that the person targeted is Leonardo Rizzuto, 53 years old. The latter, who has his title of lawyer, has no criminal history except for impaired driving cases dating from the early 1990s.
However, he is considered by the police as one of the leaders of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal Mafia and one of the influential members of Montreal organized crime.
Several Laval police patrol officers were dispatched to the scene on Wednesday. Rizzuto’s car, a Mercedez-Benz GLC, had flat tires. You could also see several bullet holes on the front left window.
PHOTO THE PRESS
Leonardo Rizzuto’s Mercedes-Benz GLC had flat tires in the attempted murder.
A person in charge of the funeral center met on the spot indicated that the establishment will not make any comment on this event for the moment.
Operation Magot-Mastiff
Leonardo Rizzuto was arrested in November 2015 in Operation Magot-Mastiff in which the Sûreté du Québec beheaded a mafia-biker-gang alliance that ran Montreal’s organized crime, and was charged with gangsterism and possession of a weapon fist and drugs.
But the evidence came mainly from a conversation picked up during the investigation by microphones installed by the police in the conference room of former criminal lawyer Loris Cavaliere. The police then obtained a warrant allowing them to search his home, where they found the weapon and a small amount of cocaine.
But Rizzuto challenged the legality of the interception of conversations in the ex-lawyer’s office and won. The search warrant was therefore invalidated and Leonardo Rizzuto was acquitted, as was Stefano Sollecito, also considered one of the leaders of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia.
A targeted family
Leonardo’s older brother, Nicola Rizzuto Junior, was murdered in December 2009 in what was the genesis of an attempted coup against the family by rebel clans of the Montreal Mafia.
His grandfather and former Montreal mob boss, Nicola Rizzuto, and his uncle, Paolo Renda, were respectively murdered and abducted — never found — in November and May 2010, during the same coup attempt.
Vito Rizzuto, for his part, died of natural causes in December 2013.
The attempted murder against Leonardo Rizzuto must be considered a major event in the criminal world in Montreal and could cause an escalation. Several individuals linked to Montreal organized crime have been warned by the police that their lives have been in danger for a year, but these warnings are commonplace in the community.
Although police sources have reported some tensions within the mafia in recent months, others have told us recently that the situation has been much calmer since the elimination in 2019 of the brothers Salvatore and Andrew Scoppa who also had took part in a power war against Sicilians in 2016, according to police.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.