The woman shot dead while driving, in the middle of rush hour Tuesday afternoon, in the Côte-des-Neiges sector, is the spouse of one of the sons of the late Calabrian mafioso Moreno Gallo, learned The Press.
The victim, Claudia Iacono, was driving her car when she was hit by bullets before hitting her business on rue Jean-Talon, near rue de la Savane, around 4:30 p.m.
Called to the scene, the police then found that the woman had been hit by at least one projectile from a firearm.
According to our information, the victim was the spouse of Anthony Gallo, son of Moreno Gallo. She was the mother of three young children.
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 spot before taking refuge in one of the businesses owned by the family at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday.
An employee of an adjacent business says he heard two or three shots before he and his colleagues rushed outside to see the scene.
PHOTO THE PRESS
Several relatives of the victim quickly arrived on the spot before taking refuge in one of the businesses owned by the family at the end of Monday afternoon.
“It was very quick, two or three pops, like an engine blowing up,” he explained, referring 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,” confided another employee of a nearby business, still in shock, taking a break.
“They tried to do everything to bring her back. She was covered in blood,” he added, pointing to his upper body, at chest level.
The Major Crimes investigators of the Montreal Police Department will have to determine if the victim was indeed the one targeted.
If so, it is very rare for the wife of an individual linked to organized crime to be the victim of a murder.
“If so, this murder will be a turning point in the criminal history of Quebec. The insurmountable limit of not attacking women and children, this code of honor or ethics which existed within the mafia in the past, will have flown away with the old values”, 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 dead in the garage of her Laval residence, but the police believe that this crime, which is still unsolved, is a mistake about the person.
Mme Iacono was the owner of the Dauville hairstyle and spa salon in front of which the crime took place. The salon is also owned by a numbered company in the name of Antonio Gallo.
This is not the first time that individuals have attacked one of the women of the Gallo family.
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 Mafia 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 La Presse.