Montreal homicide victim had close ties to Mafia: cops
By Paul Cherry, Gazette Crime Reporter
February 1, 2011

MONTREAL - The city’s latest homicide victim is believed to have had close ties to the highest levels of the Mafia, according to police sources.

At first glance, the shooting death of Antonio Di Salvo, 44, appears to be related to ongoing violence within people linked to the criminal organization which was significantly destabilized by Project Colisée.

According to a police source, Di Salvo was known to associate with members of the Rizzuto organization before Mafia leaders and their associates were arrested in November 2006 in the major Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation. Two people in particular Di Salvo was known to associate with were Francesco Del Balso and Francesco Arcadi.

Both men are currently serving lengthy prison terms they received after pleading guilty to charges related to Colisée. Arcadi was considered to be the Rizzuto organization’s street boss, a position that required him to manage many aspects of the organization’s activities, including drug trafficking. Del Balso worked directly underneath Arcadi and, among other things, made sure his orders were carried out.

By comparison, Di Salvo’s criminal record is relatively insignificant. According to provincial court records, Di Salvo was convicted of offences related to impaired driving during the 1990s. He was charged with taking part in a criminal conspiracy in 1990 but was cleared of the charge three months later.

According to the Montreal police, Di Salvo’s body was discovered by a friend Monday evening. Major crimes investigators were called to the house, on Perras Blvd. in Rivière des Prairies, after it became apparent the victim had been shot in the head at least once.

Di Salvo, who was married but had no children, moved into the newly built home in 2007.

No arrests have been made in connection with the homicide, the sixth reported on the Montreal Island so far this year.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Victim+high+level+ties+Mafia+cops/4202239/story.html

who is killing all of the rizzuto family?
i heard about the dead of nick rizzuto jr and sr but i don't understood what is the rival group

"Deadly revenge stalked Montreal mob boss"

MONTREAL – The sons of a Montreal mobster murdered by the Rizzuto clan in 1978 were spotted in the city a week before Nick Rizzuto was killed.

Sources told QMI Agency Dominic and Giuseppe Violi were seen in Little Italy and the city’s downtown district just days before the Mafia don was felled by a sniper’s bullet in the kitchen of his north-end home late last year.

Paolo Violi – a member of the Calabrian faction in Montreal at the time - was shot dead on Jan. 22, 1978. The mob land hit was part of an internecine war and paved the way for the Rizzutos to rise to the top of Canada’s Mafia hierarchy.

Rocco Violi was the last of the four Violi brothers to die, killed in 1980 when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the chest as he sat in his Montreal home with his family, reading the newspaper.

For the next 30 years, the Rizzuto clan ran the Quebec underworld uncontested, but an expert says “there’s no statute of limitations on revenge.”

Toronto author Antonio Nicaso, who has written more than a dozen books on the Mafia, told QMI mobsters have long memories when their friends or family are killed.

"In many cases, people took revenge (after) 30 years,” he said on Friday, noting the Rizzutos became easier targets once their power in Canada waned.

"It's not like you can avenge something if you are facing an organization stronger than you. You can take revenge if your targets are facing difficult times."

Last November, Rizzuto’s assassination - played out in circumstances that paralleled Rocco’s murder – seemed to spell the end of the Sicilian family’s reign.

Who ordered the assassination of the 86-year-old mob boss?

After Paolo Violi’s death, his widow and two sons fled to Hamilton, Ont. – turf that belongs to the Calabrian Mafia, also known as the ‘Ndrangheta.

Sources told QMI the decision to kill the elderly Rizzuto was made in the Steel Capital. QMI also learned that, while no new leader has emerged, the successor will likely be named by Hamilton factions.

The ‘Ndrangheta will also recruit new members in Quebec, including known mobsters like Lorenzo Giordano and Moreno Gallo, currently facing extradition to Italy.

Rizzuto associates may also be courted to help consolidate power in the province.

Former Quebec provincial police investigator John Galianos said turncoats are not new.

“We saw it in Quebec with the biker wars. People changed camps and we never thought they would. It’s money that brings people into that world.”

Another source close to the law enforcement community said the new Mafia leaders will likely share power with up-and-coming criminal organizations, like the Asian and Middle Eastern mobs, bikers and street gangs.

“If they don’t share, it’ll be all out war,” Galianos said. “There are just too many criminal organizations on the ground. And they need peace in order to make money.”

The Violis are Calabrian and the Rizzutos are Sicilian but Nicaso says he doesn't believe the Calabrian Mafia, which has a foothold in Ontario, is behind the recent purge. He says Italy’s powerful ethnic mob groups would not risk all-out war over a Montreal blood feud.

Unlike the Italian Mafia that is organized along ethnic lines, North American crime families are diverse.

“La Cosa Nostra is a criminal melting pot - Calabrians, Sicilians, Neapolitans, people with different backgrounds," said Nicaso.

"I tend to (reject) the possibility that the Calabrian Mafia is challenging the Rizzutos. It's more likely that the Calabrian faction within the Rizzuto crime family is trying to make a move."

Meanwhile, top ranking family member Vito Rizzuto is behind bars in the U.S. and has shown no intention of abdicating the throne.

He is scheduled to be released next year.


Fonte: Torontosun.com

Didn't the bodies start to fall shortly after the arrival of Salvatore Montagna? Doesn't have to mean anything, but the timing is odd. I'd take a good look at him.

It's most likely a coincidence only.

I now strongly believe in the theory that it's been done by the Luppino's from Hamilton (Domenic and Giuseppe Violi included), the D'Amico's from Grandby and Calabrians from Montreal.

The 'Ndrangheta groups (Siderno group in Toronto) are probably just looking from the sideline.

When does Francesco Arcadi get released?? it's sometime relatively soon right? 2018 or so??

Rizzuto family death possible Montreal Mafia revenge


As the mafia war in Montreal continues to play out and attacks on the Rizzuto crime family continue new information and theories emerge. The latest attack against the Rizzuto’s was the fire bombing of the Loreto Funeral Home owned by the family last week. As the Rizzuto family continues to lose its top members and leadership the war to wrestle away control of the Montreal underworld continues. Now some sources with information on the gang land war think some hit’s on the Rizzuto family could be cold hard revenge from years past.

Paolo Violi was a member of the Montreal based Calabrian mafia faction when he was shot dead on Jan. 22, 1978. It was this mob hit that first paved the way for the Rizzuto crime family to move in and take control. Paolo was one of four brothers who held control over the Montreal and Quebec underworld his brother Rocco Violi was the last of the brothers alive when he was shot and killed by a snipers bullet in 1980 as he sat reading a paper at his home in Montreal. Once the Violi brothers were all dead then Sicilian based Rizzuto family would take control over the hold it over the next 30 years.

Now sources have confirmed that sons of deceased mobster Paolo Violi were spotted in the city just a week before the hit on the Rizzuto family patriarch Nicolo Rizzuto was carried out. Dominic and Giuseppe Violi were seen in Little Italy and in downtown districts of Montreal. The way the hit on Nicolo Rizzuto was carried out paralled the hit on on Rocco Violi from so many years ago and this time it may have signaled the end of the reign for the Sicilian family. When Paolo Violi was killed his wife and sons fled to Hamilton an area which is controlled by the Calabrian mafia or ‘Ndrangheta for protection. Sources now say the killing of the elder Nicolo Rizzuto may have been ordered from that same steel capital of Hamilton.

Mobsters often have long memories when their family or friends are killed says mafia book author Antonio Nicaso. The Rizzuto family became much easier targets as there power over the underworld in Canada started to slip away says Nicaso and it’s not like you can take revenge if the organization your fighting is stronger but when your target hits difficult times they become much more vulnerable. While there has been no clear new leader to emerge in Montreal or the Rizzuto’s completely fallin many feel when the shake up ends it will be the Hamilton faction of the Calabrian mafia to name the new successor.

It is also thought that the ‘Ndrangheta will begin to recruit new members from Montreal and Quebec which may include veteran mobsters like Moreno Gallo and Lorenzo Giordano. They may also court some of the Rizzuto families own members to help and consolidate the power hold in the province. Having turncoats flip from one family to another when a power change takes place is not new says John Galianos a former police investigator. It’s money that brings people into the underworld so people who most thought never would have been known to change camps. Many also think that the new mafia leaders possibly moving in will be forced to share control of the area with other organized crime groups like the Asian’s , Middle Eastern mobs , and biker gangs. Galianos says that if they do not share control it would mean all out war and for any of them to make money there has to be peace with so many organized crime groups now on the ground in the area.

With the Rizzuto family being Sicilian and the Violi family being Calabrian it is easy to link the attacks on the Rizzuto’s to the Ontario based Calabrians but some find it unlikely for them to be directly behind things. Nicaso says he believes it is a lot more likely that the attacks on the Rizzuto’s are coming from the Calabrian faction within the Rizzuto family and Hamilton instead of the Calabrian mafia itself but its hard to say for sure. The last top ranking member and boss of the Rizzuto family Vito Rizzuto still sits in jail in the U.S. while his family gets ripped apart but still shows no intention on abdicating his thrown so there may yet be a Rizzuto backlash when he is released next year.


http://themafiatoday.com/rizzuto-family-death-possible-montreal-mafia-revenge

How is the rat rates in Canada? Not much of a serieus threat by turncoats it seems. Maybe its because the Ndrangheta has a grip there, they have less rats then Cosa Nostra.

In Canada, most mafia families are intermarried and often blood related. They are very tight-knit. That's the reason why they don't have any rats. At least from what we know...