I think this is getting bogged down in this semantics of titles, who's a boss, who's a capo...does being labelled a lieutenant hold the same power as a capo?

Its clear that Montreal was a Bonnano crew headed by Vic Controni until his imprisonment where Violi stepped in, I guess in an acting capacity. By the time of his release Violi was dead and Contrini accepted the new admin... the rizzutos.

It seems they themselves don't label each other with official titles, perhaps as a deliberate rouse to keep outsiders guessing, but as in any organization there will be some individuals that will for whatever reason, float to the top. If people like sciara were used in a counseller position, weather there was an official title or not, is not exactly surprising.

All evidence shows they were pulling away from the Bonnanos from the early/mid ninties, acting for all intents as a separate family. The NY Bonnanos clearly had no idea what was going on up north, and the Canadians weren't clearing anything or going on record with the bosses back in NY for anything they were doing.

They didn't even know how many guys they had up there. If the Canadians were submitting a list for approval, at least approval from the Bonnano admin, before making guys, they would have had some idea but its clear from Vitale they had none.

Vitale says the last tribute received came down end of year 1998. Sciassia gets knocked March 99. It seems to me Montreal was pulling away prior to this, the killing was just the excuse needed to officially sever ties.

At this point, I think anyone who thinks Montreal is still under the Bonnano flag is crazy.

Says here Sollecito is the boss

http://aboutthemafia.com/montreal-mafia-leaders-rizzuto-and-sollecito-fight-for-bail

Leonardo and Stefano are the bosses. In that chart mentioned showed at the conference the day they were locked up, they were pictured side by side.

I haven't read all this stuff but it seems obvious to me that they were once a faction but now are autonomous.

I'd say at this point both are bosses too. I think Sollecito is the gangster of the two, and Rizzuto is the brains of the operation.

The B's probably don't want anything with them, and vice versa. No reason for the Rizzutos to pay tribute to the weakest BY fam hundreds of miles away. Why people care is beyond me. It's not 1970.

I think Sollecito isn't a dummie either. But I agree that he is probably in charge of the street operations while Leonardo represents the interests of the Rizzuto family. Soon Arcadi will be out and he probably wants a large slice of the pie if not the whole pie itself.

I agree with your analysis. It would be interesting to know what will happen with Arcadi. If he takes the whole pie that won't sit well with the others. If he is accepted back, my bet is that they may make him underboss or lower. I can't see him hold a post higher than that without starting an internal fight. Then there is another problem if Leonardo and the young Sollecito go to jail, they will have to appoint an acting boss which most likely will be chosen from the emerging young Sicilians that sit at the table.The elderly Sollecito will probably act in an advisory roll. Just speculating !

The time of the Sicilians in the Montreal Mafia has come and gone. This recent bust is proof of that. They've been on the decline, and this was the final nail in the coffin. Rocco has been playing an advisory role between Leonardo & Stefano, that won't be anything new, he was reported consigliere by the Gazette after Vito died. The fact that the Spagnola fellow wasn't scooped up in this bust is a big indication that his role wasn't what it was speculated to be when the first reports of a table came out and nobody believed me that Leonardo may have possibly been heading things along with Sollecito, and Spagnola was reported to be boss as opposed to Leonardo who some reporters were still simply calling a legitimate lawyer. It seems as if the Montreal Mafia has reverted back to what it was in the Cotroni days, Calabrians representing the larger portion, thus being the power, there are still Rizzuto cousins and nephews and uncles involved but it's hard to tell yet what they're role is in everything. Arcadi is coming home, he'll most likely be named boss or declare it himself, I don't see him settling for anything else. Giordano has been home, Del Balso is due out soon as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Especially with Arcadi, who is calabrian, has relatives who may possibly be 'Ndranghisti, and was growing sour on the Sicilian clan before his arrest. Since I don't see him backing down, I'd like to see if the remnants of the Sicilian clan feel they're still enough of a force to step to him and challenge him. Not to mention other members of La Milieu were never really happy with him, he treated everyone like assholes and acted as if they were beneath him, especially the black gangs. However guys may have realized there will never be another Vito, and he might last off that fact alone.

If things do go down non-amicably, I suspect Giordano and Del Balso will side with him. Thats just my opinion.

That's prescisely what I've been thinking for awhile now, I've asked the question numerous times on this site, with the Rizzutos traditional strenghth being narcotics suppliers, and with Ndrangheta and the Mexicans being the biggest suppliers on both sides of the Atlantic now, how does it affect Rizzuto power, and what role do they play in the larger scheme of Italian-American drug trafficking, and indeed drug trafficking in general? I think that's the new question to ask.
Sinatra, what you said about the Gambinos interest in Ontario, and them probably giving the OK to Montagna is super interesting, cause I've been speculating for awhile now that the Gambinos wanted in on that action, like they wanted to replace the Role that the Rizzutos had, actually it really was their role forabout 20-25 years, ( heroin rings, pizza connection) I've been trying to figure out how New Yorks families (gambino, genovese) fit in with the new order....

I don't know too much about the Genovese, but I've heard a couple of times that the Gambinos are still in collusion with Ontario for the drug market. And then there was that bust not too long ago which linked the Gambinos & 'Ndranghisti in Calabria in a drug trafficking case. Its definitely nothing I can confirm but in my opinion, I'd say the Gambinos & Ontario clans are still working together.

It probably depends on the drug being sold. Heroin and coke (and crack by extension) are two different markets of users. I suppose in lieu of one you could persuade users to try another... But heroin addicts typically need heroin. Is that what the Rizzuto drug trade continues to rely on? I've always assumed it still relies on heroin, but I really don't know.

In any case, it seems like the Siderno Group is poised to overtake the Rizzutos as Canada's preeminent Italian OC group. Which makes sense. The last few years of war seem to have taken a serious toll and the recent bust of Leo and Sollecito may result in a period of interregnum, which may well end Rizzuto control entirely. With Vito gone, I wonder how much connection to their Sicilian roots remains?

The recent Project Mastiff & Project Magot cases, seem like heroine trafficking cases to me. I'm not sure, because the evidence has been put under a type of non-share act during the bail proceedings. But Leonardo was just hit yesterday with 8 more new charges, one of which is a cocaine possession charge, with no intent to sell. Why they'd make that drug and charge public but not the others makes me think it may not be including in the same case or guidelines as Mastiff & Magot. But with Arcadi now coming back, that market could just as easily be controlled by the Calabrians next.

Sinatra you know I gave you props when I didn't believe that about Leonardo. I admit I didn't believe it until I seen it. As for Rocco, I think he was the consig even before Vito died and still has that role I think. I think he is acting boss since both "boys" are in jail right now, but that is just my speculation and not something I seen anywhere.

Sonny I wasn't trying to imply Stefano was a dummy, it's just that I think that is how the team is set up. Stefano has always seemed to traffic drugs and I figured Leonardo used his name to set up what Stefano couldn't. We know there is some kind of setup since they are both in power it seems. This bust seems kind of sloppy though with Rocco advising them (we think) so I wonder what the evidence is here. The RCMP could be reaching or they could have enough to nail them, hard to tell with the publication ban in place.

I wonder if Desjardins is trying to use the Calabrian faction to stay alive and/or to try and gain power back? I wouldn't be surprised to see him team with Arcadi, but I don't know if they have done much together in the past or not. Plus we don't know Arcadi's standing yet, if he is still in good standing I could see him holding a top position. If he doesn't want to come back quietly and going to war to get the top spot back things will be really interesting. We know Del Balso and Giordano will follow him, but is he on the hit list or not? I doubt he would make a move until all 3 are out as well.

But it will be interesting to see what happens when he is free.

The Genovese have absolutely nothing to do with it, everything points in the direction of the Gambino's, mainly John Gambino. Cali has made many trips to Canada recently apparently.

I get frustrated when I see a response like this one, mainly cause I beeeen asking what's up with it...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/nyregi...ation.html?_r=0
Lol, come on now, you almost act like I pulled that outta my ass...

Were talking about The Westside being tied to N@drangheta in Canada here, so why are you frustrated? and were they even involved in the gigliotti bust? All I've seen is articles like federici to them.

That's what I mean Tommy, it's interesting BECAUSE they were mentioned at all, I thought they stayed away from high level narcotics, but you,can't ignore the potential implications, it would mean three of the five fams in NY are into high level cocaine trafficking,
I was only frustrated cause you said they had NOTHING to do with it, when the article says the Genovese might have been financiers, that this guy was a west side associate.
Also because like I said, I asked this a long time ago and got silence on the boards..
It seems a little buzz are that they would get involved, and if not the west side, then was this,group part of the Gambino-Bonnano-Mexican group? Are these all the same thing or separate operations? Like in that article, they say that there was a three ton Coke shipment next to the smaller load from NY. They didn't know if these were two different cartels or what. I'm basically asking similar questions.... Any thoughts? I've got a few.....

And I for the record, agree with you 100%, I suspected Cali to be knee deep in this ever since the Old Bridge bust....

What does that have to do with the Genovese being linked to N'drangheta in Ontario though? This is NY. That's what was the topic and that's why I said they've got nothing to do with them.

First let me say, I didn't mean to snap at you, I thought I was getting bogged down in another long drawn out debate, I already did a couple long post lol.... So my bad...
But on your point on NY, I think you are answering one of my questions with your own, and one of my questions is indeed, is this queens group operating at the behest of Ontario? Or was,it the initiative of another rival family from Calabria who set it up?Because the way I understand it, even though the Coke is shipped out of NY, anything Ndrangheta this side of the Atlantic, as far as the streets that they control, IS Ontario, like that's the central command... But this seems like another family from Calabria, setting up a parallel pipeline for themselves, outside of any consortium arrangement..
So again, I think we pretty much agree, the genovese have little to do with it, I guess I was just confused as I got it from all the articles on the arrest, but you seemed confident it wasn't about much.... But you are like a PB of the Gambinos, so I'll,yield to your knowledge...
I wasn't thinking in terms of territorial control, more of drug flow...
This wasn't them like, setting up a crew to sling outta clubs, which is what I initially thought and was like, huh? They were just using NY as a place to organize shipments out of the country, what's weird is that they were using NY at all, cause see, they have their own methods to get Coke to Europe. The interesting thing, is that their Coke usually goes over water, but NY Coke most likely got to NY by land, I.e. Mexicans or Dominicans, most likely Mexicans though...

Who knows man maybe it is Ontario behind it, my knowledge is extremely limited outside of NY. don't yield to me I'm just a kid from England who enjoys knowledgeable posters like yourself debating OC