Shot while driving

The victim is the spouse of one of the sons of the late mafioso Moreno Gallo

The spouse of one of the sons of the late mafioso Moreno Gallo, Claudia Iacono, was shot dead while she was driving, in the middle of rush hour on Tuesday afternoon, in the Côte-des-Neiges district. If this is not the first time that a woman from the Gallo family has been the victim of reprisals, it is very rare for the spouse of an individual linked to organized crime to be assassinated.

The victim was driving his car when he was shot before hitting his business on rue Jean-Talon, near rue de la Savane.

M^me Iacono was indeed the owner of the Salon Deauville Coiffure & Spa, in front of which the crime took place.

Called to the scene, the police found that the woman had been hit by at least one projectile from a firearm.

At the end of the afternoon, Tuesday, her body was still lying, covered with a tarp, near the white SUV with which she probably crossed the entire parking lot in front of the business.

According to our information, the victim was the spouse of Antonio Gallo, son of Moreno Gallo. The 39-year-old woman was a mother of three children. The living room in front of which the drama took place also belongs to a company in the name of Antonio Gallo.

She would have been followed

Woman appreciated by her work colleagues, Claudia Iacono was always there to greet the customers of her hairdressing and beauty salon, testified a customer of the place met on the spot.

“Each time I went to have my hair cut, she was there, often with her husband, and she said hello to me,” testified the latter.

It seems, according to our information, that the victim was followed by the killer(s). Witnesses reportedly saw a suspect fleeing on foot.

Several relatives of the victim quickly arrived on the scene and took refuge in one of the family businesses at the end of the afternoon.

At the start of the evening, investigators from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) came to meet them, at the same time as the employees of the salon, whom it was possible to see, in shock, returning to the business.

“It was very fast”

An employee of an adjacent business says he heard two or three shots before he and his colleagues rushed outside to see the scene.

“It was very quick, two or three pops, like an engine blowing up,” he explained, alluding to the sounds of an exhaust pipe.

“We opened the door and went to see. Everyone was running towards the car. I ran and saw the lady who was…unconscious,” said another employee from a nearby business, still in shock, pausing.

“They tried to do everything to bring her back. She was covered in blood,” he added, pointing to his upper body, at chest level.

A targeted woman, rare but not unprecedented

SPVM Major Crimes investigators will have to determine if the victim was indeed the one targeted. Images from security cameras will be analyzed in particular in the hope of finding the suspect, the SPVM said in the evening. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday evening.

If Claudia Iacono was indeed the target of the sixth murder of the year in Montreal, it would be an exceptional fact, because it is very rare for the spouse of an individual linked to organized crime to be the victim of a murder.

“If that’s the case, this murder will be a turning point in the criminal history of Quebec,” confided to The Press a former organized crime investigator who requested anonymity.

In 2012, Lida Phon, the wife of Ziad Ziade, an individual linked to Lebanese organized crime, was shot and killed in the garage of her Laval residence, but the police believe that this crime, which remains unsolved, is a mistake about the person.

This is not the first time that one of the women of the Gallo family has been attacked.

In the fall of 2019, Moreno Gallo’s wife was kidnapped and held for several hours in a trailer near an auto parts yard on rue Lafayette in Laval, before the septuagenarian managed to flee her captors.

In 2010, Moreno Gallo, a member of the Calabrian cell rallied to the Sicilian faction and owner of the Solid Gold strip club on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, allegedly took part, with other clans, in an attempted putsch against the Rizzutos.

But former godfather Vito Rizzuto took over the reins of the Montreal mob in early 2013, and Gallo was murdered the same year in a restaurant in Acapulco, Mexico, presumably due to his lack of loyalty.

Moreno Gallo had moved to Mexico after being expelled from Canada for serious criminality.

To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.