as stated on other thread they are indeed a mafia family. i would like to see the other families go up and tell said members in montreal that they arent legit. the very fact that outside groups have not really been a part of these internal wars as good proof other families do indeed recognize the authority and territory of those in charge of montreal.
and to the point of the rizzutos being a drug cartel they would have been part of a cartel like setup along with other groups in and out of the city. this setup indeed did exist in 1999 up to about 2004.

the rizzuto crime family at this time being a united fully functioning family with its own administration and different cells/crews operating across quebec and ontario. in this case we had...

1.cocaine supplier from colombia ( in this period one of these were the munoz munera twins.)
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2.the rizzuto crime family (with members dealing direct to import cocaine.)
-working with hells angels nomad chapter to fix street price of kg of cocaine.
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3.hells angels (mostly the nomads chapter led by mom boucher and walter stadnick.)
-nomads importing both cocaine and hashish at massive levels.
-using rockers puppet club for street level sales.
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4.west end gang-matticks faction (in charge of getting drugs off ships and out of port of mtl.)

-in this scenario we have 4 groups working in concert to control top to bottom drug sales on the streets of montreal and to some extent across parts of canada. in this regard for this point in time i would call the rizzutos part of a cartel with these groups.

the 2015 arrests in project magot/mastiff revealed somewhat the same setup although without the identity of the overall cocaine supplier. however it still showed the rizzuto/sollecito faction now working to control drug sales across city with help from hells angels montreal chapter and woolley aligned street gangs.