2 Mafia-linked shootings in Greater Montreal
1 victim identified as Giuseppe (The Closer) Colapelle

38-year-old man with reported links to the Montreal Mafia was gunned down in a strip mall parking lot in Saint-Léonard on Thursday evening.

Radio-Canada has identified the victim as Giuseppe (The Closer) Colapelle, an enforcer with ties to the Rizzuto clan.

Montreal police said a man was sitting in his SUV in a parking lot near the intersection of Langelier and Lavoisier boulevards at around 6 p.m. ET when he was shot.

Police spokeswoman Anie Lemieux said the victim, who is known to police, was "injured with at least one gunshot" and declared dead at hospital.

Man shot at used car dealership
A second Thursday night shooting in the greater Montreal area is being linked to organized crime.

Steven Laporte, 39, died after being shot at a used car dealership on Highway 117, east of Saint-Sauveur.

Police say a suspect entered the dealership Thursday afternoon, started firing and left.

The victim is the son of André Laporte, according to André Cédilot, a former La Presse journalist who covered organized crime for several decades.

Laporte is "very well known and very close to the Mafia," said Cédilot, who is also author of Mafia Inc. a book on Montreal organized crime.

Cédilot said the Laportes are currently under investigation for a series of suspicious fires.

Other shooting deaths have Mafia ties
Colapelle's death is the latest in a series of killings involving victims with links to the Montreal Mafia since the police operation targeting mob bosses in 2006.

In November, Salvatore Montagna, once identified by law enforcement as boss of the Bonanno crime family, was gunned down near Montreal.

Five men were arrested in connection with his death. They include Raynald Desjardins, a close associate of Montreal's reputed Mafia don, Vito Rizzuto.

Montreal police are still investigating the latest shooting and no arrests have been made.

Giuseppe Colapelle était l'informateur de Raynald Desjardins

Giuseppe "Closure" Colapelle, yet another soldier gunned down mafia last Thursday night, was playing a very dangerous game. A game that he knew could cost him his life.

According to information obtained by La Presse , the father of 38 years would have filled out the Raynald Desjardins band on surprising alliances that tied his rival for control of the Montreal Mafia, Salvatore Montagna.

The latter, aged 40, was murdered on November 24 at the island Vaudry, to Charlemagne. Desjardins as a crime and a very close collaborator, Vittorio Mirarchi, are accused of committing with other accomplices.

Montagna, darling of New York mafia, had briefly been the sponsor of the Bonanno family. But he had to resign themselves to try to build his empire in Montreal on the ruins of one of the Rizzuto family, decimated since the arrest of Vito and Operation Coliseum in 2006.

Is that Montagna had been deported from the United States, which he did not hold citizenship. A few years ago, it was therefore moved to Montreal, where he was born. There would be lifted with a small army of aides as Larry Lorenzo Antonio and Tony LoPresti Suzuki Pietrantonio.

But to take power, it was necessary to assert its supremacy over Montagna clan Raynald Desjardins who, despite his Quebec roots, has a strong influence in the Italian criminal underworld.

In the Desjardins team, Giuseppe Colapelle was apparently one of the most dedicated soldier, although it has never been charged in connection with the murder of Montagna.

Spy

In documents that The Press has obtained, we can see that Colapelle was observed last summer by police a few times along with Vittorio Mirarchi. Most often in restaurants downtown. More importantly, it would be improvised spy for the tandem-Desjardins Mirarchi.

For example, on July 20, Colapelle would Mirarchi sent text messages in which he said he saw a van "Cilon and Waldo" (LoPresti and Pietrantionio). "I parked the car and I wanted to go say hi, but the guy Nancy flew to them, got in the van and they left," he wrote, in English, in language-specific text messages.

Nancy is the term used by the group to designate the City of New York. "The guy at Nancy," it would be Salvatore Montagna. Colapelle also wrote that Cilon and Waldo got a shock when they saw him. "I sent them by hand, they waved and left," he concluded.

Mirarchi and he exchanged messages are then expressing surprise at the meeting between the three characters that they did not visibly allies. "I wonder what they are up," says Mirarchi.

He would subsequently reported this information to Raynald Desjardins, who would have shown himself equally incredulous.

In the following months, the blood has been shed on both sides. Desjardins himself survived an assassination attempt in September in Laval.

On the other side, LoPresti was assassinated on the balcony of his condo in the borough of Saint-Laurent a few weeks later. Tony Suzuki, meanwhile, was reached in December a few balls over coffee Jarry, and he miraculously survived.

A charge

The most sensational attack in this series was obviously one that was fatal to Montagna, in November.

Colapelle had escaped death until last week. His name is unknown to the general public. At his criminal record does not appear that a charge linked to holding a gaming house, brought in the wake of the investigation Coliseum.

He played an important role against by an intermediary in conflicts between various bodies of the Mafia for a while. Its effectiveness earned him the nickname Closure. But his latest role as an informant, was certainly his most dangerous mafia. And he knew that his days could be numbered, according to our sources.

The individual who shot him outside the bar Beaches Boulevard Langelier Saint-Leonard, always short.

***

The right arm of De Vito

Giuseppe Colapelle was not only close to Vittorio Mirarchi and Raynald Desjardins. It would also have been the right arm of a mobster just as terrifying, Giuseppe De Vito. Already, in the evidence accumulated by the RCMP as part of the investigation Colosseum, between 2003 and 2006, Colapelle appeared often in conjunction with De Vito.

De Vito has managed to evade police during the raid in November 2006, the highest point Coliseum. Ponytail nicknamed because of his ponytail, he remained very active in the medium for his mare, which lasted four years. He was eventually arrested and was convicted on February 17, gangsterism and conspiracy to import cocaine.

Since incarceration De Vito is Colapelle, his right arm, which would have taken responsibility for his business. "It was his confidant, he was charismatic, had a good template that was scary. To say that one is associated with De Vito, it's like over time among bikers when we said we were associated with Mom Boucher, "says a source familiar with the criminal career of Colapelle . Closure was his nickname because he had an ability to close deals, even the most twisted, for example with the kidnappers of a close Rizzuto removed, Nicola Varracali. But also because he had done "broaching" the stomach during bariatric surgery.

pietrantonio should be the leader of his group now that montagna and lopresti were wacked and probably the montreal mafia leader (and bonanno capo?) since mirarchi desjardens are all in jail