The poster cdn_wiseguy made a post (
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...6107#Post726107) in which he or she linked to a
Toronto Star article that has new information about some who have been investigated in relation to Nick Rizzuto Sr.'s murder.
I'm going to post excerpts from at least two articles in this thread.
Excerpts from the article to which cdn_wiseguy linked:
Slaying of hitman and his friend has expert wondering if Montreal’s Mafia war is coming to TorontoBy: Peter Edwards Crime, Jennifer Pagliaro News reporter
Toronto StarPublished on Sat Jul 13 2013
Salvatore (Sam) Calautti, 40, seldom travelled alone or without a gun — a sensible precaution for a man suspected in at least five unsolved gangland hits, including the slaying of Nicolo (Uncle Nick) Rizzuto Sr., father of Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.
But neither his gun nor his associates saved the longtime GTA hitman Friday morning when he was shot dead in his BMW X6 after attending the stag of a local bookie at the Terrace Banquet Centre in Vaughan that was attended by 500 guests, 100 of whom were there at the time of the shooting.
His longtime associate, James Tusek, 35, was also slain.
The double gangland hits have investigators wondering if the Montreal Mafia wars have moved to Toronto. “It could be the beginning of a new front of struggle in the Montreal war,” said Antonio Nicaso, an author and expert on international organized crime, who has lectured police forces in several countries. He noted that two men connected to the mob war were murdered in Sicily in April.
“After Italy, Ontario may also be involved in the showdown,” he said.
Vito Rizzuto’s underworld enemies in Ontario are believed to have conspired with some Montreal mobsters in a war in that city that led to the murder of Rizzuto’s father, eldest son, brother-in-law and several of his closest associates.
The Star has learned Calautti was investigated in the unsolved November 2010 murder of Rizzuto Sr., who was shot dead by a sniper while standing with his wife in the kitchen of his Montreal mansion. Police saw one of Calautti’s longtime associates in Montreal the day after the Nick Rizzuto Sr. murder: “You have to consider the presence of these people at the time of the murder,” a police investigator said.
[snip]
The police sources noted that there is extreme tension between Rizzuto’s crime group, which has Sicilian roots, and many GTA mobsters, whose roots are in the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta.
[snip]
Even before the Nick Rizzuto Sr. murder, Calautti had long and often tense relations with the Montreal-based Rizzuto crime family. Authorities say the Rizzuto group also has a strong and long-standing GTA presence.
Calautti was the prime suspect in Operation RIP, which investigated the 2000 slaying of Vito Rizzuto’s former right-hand man, Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto in Toronto in October 2000.
Calautti had been close friends with ‘Ndrangheta member Domenic (Mico) Napoli, a mobster who was in conflict with Panepinto over gambling territory. Napoli and his associate Antonio Oppedisano disappeared and were believed murdered in early 2000.
[snip]
The massive Montreal RCMP investigation dubbed Project Colisée found that in 2006 that Calautti ran up more than $200,000 in gambling debts to the Rizzuto crime family. After he refused to pay, that debt was believed to be assumed by a GTA mobster.
Other gambling debts run up by Calautti were considered the spark for the hostilities that led to the 2004 shooting of Louise Russo, an innocent victim in a North York sandwich shop, one of the police sources said.
Calautti owed roughly $200,000 to an online gambling operation with ties to the GTA mob and the London, Ont., Hells Angels. When Calautti refused to pay, his sponsor, Sicilian mobster Michele (Mike) Modica, was stuck with the debt. A hit team was trying to kill Modica in the California Sandwich shop when gunmen missed and paralyzed Russo....