"Let's say that for the moment, this is the hypothesis that is at the top of the list. But the investigation is just beginning. There are other hypotheses, and things could change down the road, "said yesterday in La Presse a police source who requested anonymity.
The police do not believe, however, that the individual linked to the Rizzuto clan who was in another reception room at the hotel on Saturday night, for a wedding, is related to the crime.
The SQ already seems to want to rule out the possibility that Salvatore Scoppa was killed for a cocaine import case that allegedly explained his stay in Peru a few months ago.
Two people told La Presse that the family party at which Salvatore Scoppa took part on Saturday night was organized on the occasion of the confirmation of one of his children, but this information could not be confirmed with the SQ.
By the time he was killed, Scoppa was accompanied by a bodyguard, who however could not do anything.
Sources said that Salvatore Scoppa, known to be constantly on the lookout, or even paranoid, may have dropped his guard Saturday night, because the chances that he will be shot in the lobby of a hotel, in front of witnesses and during a family party, were, we could logically think, rather thin. But things have changed over the years in the mafia.
The investigators began to watch videos captured by the hotel's surveillance cameras.
Few details filtered about the two suspects, the shooter and another man, who were in the lobby when the crime was committed. It is also unknown whether the faces of the individuals were hidden or not.
A BIT OF CONTEXT
Salvatore Scoppa was the brother of Andrew Scoppa, considered by the police as an influential chieftain of the Montreal mafia.
The Scoppa began to make themselves known in the early 1990s. According to the police, they were then involved in the heroin and cocaine trade, and reportedly controlled areas in Parc-Extension, Mile End and East of France. Montreal. Their trade would not have been without conflicts with other traffickers. According to police documents, Andrew Scoppa was reportedly the target of three bombings in the mid-1990s.
The Scoppa, like some clans still active in the mafia, have always had the reputation of being independent, but they were nonetheless allies of leaders of the Montreal mafia, the Rizzuto (Sicilians).
After the arrest of Vito Rizzuto in 2004, the Scoppa remained neutral in the attempted coup against the Sicilians in the absence of the godfather, then held in the United States.
After returning from Vito Rizzuto to Montreal in the fall of 2012, police officers observed the sponsor with Andrew Scoppa a few times, according to court documents.
In December 2013, a few days before his death, Vito Rizzuto summoned some influential Mafia members, including Salvatore Scoppa, to his home in Laval to invite them to make peace, police sources told La Presse .
But tensions then appeared between Scoppa and those who took over from the godfather. In 2015, Sicilian clan leaders discussed the possibility of eliminating Salvatore Scoppa during a conversation in the office of former criminal lawyer Loris Cavaliere.
In 2016, three influential Mafiosos, including Rocco Sollecito, father of Stefano Sollecito, acting head of the Mafia, were killed and the police suspected Salvatore Scoppa of having been involved in at least one of these murders, even though he was never charged.
The relationship between Salvatore and Andrew Scoppa was not always good, according to several police, judicial and criminal sources.
"We'll see if blood ties are stronger," said a source close to the criminal scene.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to drenaud@lapresse.ca or write to La Presse's mailing address .
