The patriarch of the Rizzuto family came to Canada in 1954 from the small Sicilian town of Cattolica Eroclea.
By 1975, he was identified in a public inquiry as a lieutenant of the Cotronis, the family of Calabrian origin that controlled Montreal's Mafia.
During the power struggle for control of the Montreal Mafia in the late 1970s, he was forced into exile in Venezuela, police wiretaps show. The 1978 assassination of the leading mafioso Paolo Violi enabled him to return, signalling the rise of mobsters of Sicilian origin affiliated with the Rizzutos over their Calabrian rivals.
Mr. Rizzuto served five years in jail in Venezuela for cocaine possession in 1998. ###################################################################
