Entirely realistic, mike68, but a murder nevertheless shocking if internally sanctioned because of how high up Verduci appeared to have figured in the hierarchy of the Toronto-area Siderno Group.

The brazen daytime slaying of GTA mobster Carmine Verduci is a blunt message from Montreal’s underworld: The war with Vito Rizzuto’s old crime family isn’t over

Verduci’s murder is a loud message to his old associates in the GTA and Hamilton underworld, police officers who specialize in organized crime said Friday.

“To me it’s a huge message, one officer said. “It’s not over just because Vito’s dead. . . . Certain people have to die before business gets done.

The slaying comes after several visits to the GTA from two senior members of the old Rizzuto crime family this year.


Verduci was a prime target for Montreal assassins because he tried to encroach on turf which the Rizzutos considered their own, a police source said.


He was a frequent visitor to Montreal during the mob wars of the past five years, police say. Rizzuto’s eldest son and father are among the victims of unsolved gangland murders during that time.


During the fight to steal turf from Rizzuto, police say Verduci was part of a group that became involved with Sal Montagna, head of the Bonanno crime family of New York City.


Montagna was murdered near Montreal in November 2011.


A police report obtained by the Star states that Verduci was a “loyal member” of a GTA cell of the ’Ndrangheta international crime organization, whose illegal activities include “weapons trafficking; money laundering; municipal and federal corruption; stock market fraud and drug trafficking.”