The Rizzuto mafia clan is seriously threatened with the assassination of kingpin Gregory Woolley This murder which occurred on November 17 is described as “a tipping point” by several police sources
The 45-year reign of the Rizzuto clan at the head of organized crime in Montreal is seriously threatened with the murder of kingpin Gregory Woolley, which occurred two weeks ago.
The shooting of Woolley, which occurred on November 17 in front of his wife and three-day-old child in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, is described as “a tipping point” by several police sources interviewed by our Bureau of Investigation .
This is because the formidable Woolley, 51, was one of the most important allies left to Leonardo Rizzuto, co-leader of a clan increasingly shaken in recent months.
“Now that Gregory is dead, Leonardo has just lost his main protector,” says a police source on condition of anonymity.
Since the death of godfather Vito Rizzuto from natural causes in 2013, his son Leonardo and Stefano Sollecito, whose father Rocco was already interim head of the mafia, form the tandem at the head of the Sicilian clan's operations in Montreal.
As recently as 2020, the Quebec Criminal Intelligence Service ruled, in a detailed report of which we obtained a copy, that the Rizzutos formed “the most influential and powerful criminal group” in Quebec.
The organization saw the clan as "a direct and continuing threat to Quebec society."
But things changed very quickly.
Rizzuto targeted
Last March, Leonardo Rizzuto was the victim of an attempted murder on Highway 440 in Laval. Eight bullets were fired at his luxury Mercedes-Benz SUV, but the 53-year-old mobster survived.
Then, Del Balso himself was assassinated on June 5, after leaving a meeting in a Dorval gymnasium.
Police officers who expected the escalation of violence to continue were surprised by a relatively calm summer season in the metropolis... until the attack on Woolley two weeks ago.
That day, the boss took a seat in his partner's Lamborghini SUV. Normally, the 51-year-old would have been driving an armored vehicle, which was under repair.
In recent weeks, police had warned the man nicknamed “the godfather of street gangs” that his life was in danger.
He was feuding with Hells Angels Normand "Casper" Ouimet and Patrick Lock in recent months. Woolley had also made a powerful enemy in Raynald Desjardins, the veteran mafia kingpin. In 2015, he was also accused of plotting a failed assassination attempt on Desjardins.
Although the charges were dropped in 2018, investigator Steve Girard, responsible for questioning Woolley after his arrest in 2015, warned him that some of his enemies might want revenge.
“A characteristic specific to the Italian mafia is that revenge has no expiration date,” adds Commander Francis Renaud.
“The city is open”
The game of new alliances has now begun in the metropolis.
“There are a lot of new alliances that can be a little fragile. It might seem like a form of instability, but it's more tensions generated by these new alliances,” says Marie-Ève ??Lavallée, inspector responsible for the organized crime program in Quebec for the RCMP, in an interview.
