Quebec's provincial police are investigating after a man was shot dead outside a business north of Montreal early Tuesday morning.

Radio-Canada sources have identified the man as Vincenzo Armeni, a known and notorious drug trafficker with ties to Montreal's Mafia.

Laval police say they received a 911 call around 7:46 a.m. Officers were dispatched to a strip mall just off Highway 440, near Le Corbusier Boulevard in the city's Chomedey neighbourhood.

When officers arrived, they found the 66-year-old man on the ground next to a vehicle. He was declared dead at the scene.

The Sûreté du Québec has since taken over the investigation.

Shortly after, police found an SUV on fire in a parking lot about seven kilometres away, at the corner of 71th Avenue and 1st Street. Authorities did not confirm if the two events were related.


Armeni had been arrested in 2006 in connection with 250 kilograms of cocaine and was then considered one of the largest drug importers in Canada.

The contents of this seizure alone reportedly accounted for 10 per cent of all cocaine seized in Canada that year.

Armeni had been sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2007, but was released with conditions in 2020.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/known-quebec-mafia-drug-trafficker-160623392.html