Originally Posted By: Ciment


The former RCMP analyst quoted, who is also an organized-crime author coming out with a new book later this year, has maintained that whichever individual is successful in assuming the Montreal Mafia godfather role will have to be someone from Montreal, born and bred in Montreal, and so on. For this reason, a number of years ago this author dismissed the idea that someone like Sal Montagna would have been successful in assuming the role; yet the same author has given hints he may be open to the idea that Paolo Violi's sons (likely the older one) aspire to that role. Funnily enough, both Montagna and the Violi sons were born in that city, and I think that all three of those individuals had been more familiar with Quebec's organized-crime landscape than one would be led to believe.

The author also thinks the Hells Angels in Quebec are taking a neutral position in the mob war.

Contrast those opinions with those spelled out by Antonio Nicaso in the article to which I've linked below.

https://news.vice.com/fr/article/pourquoi-mafia-de-montreal-est-elle-en-guerre

Nicaso doesn't see the conflict in Montreal as a Sicilian—Calabrian rivalry. Unlike the aforementioned author, Nicaso speculates that the Quebec Hells may have struck an alliance with the Ontario 'ndrangheta and that this alliance is either supporting or financing the efforts of a rebel Montreal faction. Nicaso entertains the idea of a confederation of Italian crime groups running the Italian underworld in Montreal.

What do posters think about the notion that there has to be a single individual who, through the force of his personality, will, and muscle, will impose himself as the godfather of the Montreal Mafia?

Do posters think that the Quebec Hells backed Vito Rizzuto and Rizzuto loyalists before Rizzuto's death and then afterward for about two years before breaking the alliance?

The Siderno Group in the GTA has not always had a good relationship with outlaw bikers in Ontario--the most evidence we have, and it might not be sufficient, is the fallout from the Commisso brothers' hiring of former Satan's Choice biker Cecil Kirby in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as Kirby chose to become an informant. A glimpse into Remo Commisso's attitude toward bikers will be found in Peter Edwards's 2013 book, Unrepentant: The Strange and (Sometimes) Terrible Life of Lorne Campbell, Satan's Choice and Hells Angels Biker--both Commisso and Campbell were in the same prison, and Commisso just hated the bikers there. The book indicates that the Hells in the GTA appeared to think Peter Scarcella was an important figure--someone to seek permission from--but then again, Scarcella has always been under the Commissos' thumb.

On the other hand, Jimmy Luppino (the uncle of Violi's sons) was very much respected by Ontario Hells Angels, some of whom attended his funeral back in 2009. Violi's sons seemed to have expanded the Luppino group's activities in an important way in the 1990s by getting into drug trafficking; so perhaps Violi's sons and the whole Luppino-Violi group have better connections to the Ontario Hells than the GTA Siderno Group does. But even if there isn't a good relationship, the more important consideration is whether there are good connections with the Quebec Hells--either directly or, as a result of links with Italian groups or figures in Montreal, indirectly.