all right i'm back. just returning from 8-10 year old baseball??? game. good god have mercy on us all is there hope?
i will not say that experience has cleared my head any but here we go.

i think the rizzuto/sollecito faction is weakened. even recent media reports have said as much. one from la presse that has been posted here and on other threads mentions both rizzuto and sollecito once holding the title of acting boss/heads of the mafia. a title that neither holds currently. as has been discussed there is no overall boss of the MTL MAFIA. which would certainly explain the continuing mayhem daily on the streets. both rizzuto and sollecito were both often mentioned as although not bosses but part of what makes up the "decision makers" alongside robert/plouffe etc. rizzuto and sollecito dont seem to garner as much of a mention lately. there names being replaced by the likes of del balso, barberio, pizzi and pietrantonio.

as far as leonardo rizzuto goes if he learnt anything from his father and grandfather it would be patience and an ability to bide your time until an opportunity arises. so a direct poorly thought out strike may not be his style. also the fact that del balso is more than likely under near constant surveillance of some kind from some level of police as part of the ongoing investigation into the HA (robert/plouffe) and now including gilles lambert doesnt help. the same can be said for any of his enemies at this point with this latest murder of claudia iacono. the police must be under pressure from all sides to make arrests not just for the murders but for the daily arsons being committed.

and i would think there are some high level meetings going on amongst the top decision makers across the mtl area. from all of the most current articles from la presse and journal de mtl those at the top want to make money and have no interest in past feuds. so we still dont know the cause or what started this tit for tat allegedly going on between rizzuto and del balso. or if in fact that is even the case.

as far as alternate theories as to what is going on i think i will start a thread to elaborate further because there is alot going on and there is no way it all fits nicely into just another mtl mafia war. there is so little we know still about the murders of piero arena and vincenzo armeni and how they possibly fit into all this if at all. now add the murder of iacono which throws a wrench into everything.

i hope some of this helps answer the original questions.