Nine men have been arrested in connection to five of the eighteen recent fire bombings of Italian cafe's in Montreal. Each man is a reputed gang-member or gang affiliated.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Nine...5502/story.html There has been much talk lately on the supposedly waning strength & presence of the Rizzuto LCN Family in the underworld of Montreal, like the great article that started this thread. Vito Rizzuto's US conviction & imprisonment has seen the Family described as "rudderless", & Calabrian mobsters & free-lance criminals, already strong in their own right, seem to have taken the opportunity to flex muscle & stretch out, at least according to some articles. The street gangs of Montreal in particular have risen sharply in relevant visiblity.
Besides the shock murder of Vito's son Nick Rizzuto* & a few other deaths, by far the most overt insult had been the seemingly random fire bombing's of Italian Cafe's & businesses in Montreal. Random because rather than organised attacks against specific figures, the fire bombing's are believed to have been the work of various street level gangsters, simply targeting Italian businesses to signify their disdain & disrespect for the Rizzuto Family & the Italian O.C Groups of Montreal in general. Other theories for motives include the attacks being related to "drug-turf". Canadian authorities even worked at one point the theory that the bombings were the work of rival Calabrian mafiosi. Official motives are still unclear, as stated in the first article linked. Below are some older ones in relation to the apparent conflicts between Mafia & the Street Gangs:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2573110 http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Strip+club+shutdown+linked+Montreal+shooting/2906750/story.html *Murdered mobsters Nick Rizzuto & Frank Del Peschio
http://www.canada.com/news/Nick+Rizzuto+gunned+down/2386095/story.html http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Murder+victim+linked+Montreal+Mafia/1917043/story.html The guy that seems to be riding the crest of this current wave of media notoriety is one Ducarme Joseph. He is linked to several tit for tat hits & retaliations & is exemplary of the so called street gangsters rising in power as attested by many recent articles.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Montreal+gangster/2732493/story.html http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Cops+probe+Mafia+link+double+slaying/2699657/story.html Its interesting whats going on in Montreal at the moment. Not that i think the Rizzuto Family is done for yet. But it definitely seems like a lack of Family leadership has led to the rising reputation of the individual enterprise criminal.
