A third suspect was apprehended Monday morning in connection with the attempted murder in which the co-boss of the Montreal mafia, Leonardo Rizzuto, was shot and wounded on March 15.
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After the arrest of a second suspect on Friday night, the National Organized Crime Squad (ENRCO) arrested a 34-year-old man at his home in northeast Montreal.
This is Steve Emmanuel Barthélémy, according to information obtained by the QMI Agency, TVA Nouvelles and our Bureau of Investigation.
The police associate this suspect with street gangs, just like the one they arrested last Friday, Kevin Rochebrun, 32, of Mascouche.
These two men would also have links between them, according to our sources.
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Like the two other suspects arrested so far, the individual arrested on Monday should be released during the day pending further investigation. No criminal charges have yet been filed against him.
Reprisals
On March 23, mafioso Francesco Del Balso was the first suspect arrested in this investigation, at Montreal-Trudeau airport, as he was preparing to leave the country for Europe.
The main police hypothesis is that Del Balso – a former high-ranking member of the Rizzuto clan sentenced to 15 years in prison for gangsterism following Operation Colosseum – could have ordered the attack against the son of the late godfather Vito Rizzuto in retaliation for a shooting from which he himself escaped unscathed, last November in Laval.
Courtesy picture
Mafioso Francesco Del Balso
On March 15, Leonardo Rizzuto was hit in his Mercedes SUV by at least two projectiles from a firearm fired from a Porsche SUV that arrived at his height, on the 440 west highway, also at Laval.
Rizzuto, a lawyer by profession, had managed to shake off his assailants and made his way to the parking lot of a funeral home, where he immobilized his vehicle before asking for help. During the pursuit, the windows of his SUV had been punctured and the tires had burst.
According to the police, the 53-year-old victim had probably been chased by several suspects who were traveling in two Porsche Macan SUVs, one black, in which the shooter was, and another colored red.
The suspect arrested on Monday, Steve Emmanuel Barthélémy, has no criminal record, unlike Kevin Rochebrun.
Photo QMI Agency, Maxime Deland
The latter has already been sentenced to a three-year prison sentence for his participation in an armed attack at the expense of another big name in the Italian mafia.
1er August 2016, Rochebrun was part of a group of armed hoodlums who tried to eliminate Marco Pizzi, an alleged cocaine importer now on file by the police as one of the most important associates of the Rizzuto clan.
When the hoods hit the back of his Mercedes that day, Pizzi ran away to a park where children were playing in Montreal East.
Rochebrun was caught by Montreal police a week later in possession of a Tec-9 submachine gun, a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum revolver and a Maverick caliber shotgun. .12.
– With Elizabeth Laplante and Felix Séguin