Over the past couple years a series of murders have shaken the Montreal underworld targeting the Rizzuto crime family. The once powerful Rizzuto family saw many of its leading members murdered including Nick Rizzuto Jr , Nicolo Rizzuto, Paola Renda, and Agostino Cuntrera. Current Rizzuto family boss Vito Rizzuto has seen his clan taken apart while he sits in prison after being indicted in 2003 for charges including loan sharking and murder. The question many have been asking is who is behind this assault on the Rizzuto’s ?
Now mob experts believe that the new players in the Montreal underworld have begun to surface possibly answering the question of who dismantled the Rizzuto clan. Among them are Domenico Arcuri , Joe Di Maulo, Raynald Desjardins, and Salvatore Montagna as revealed by mob insiders Andre Cedilot and Andre Noel. Joe Di Maulo has been a pillar of the Montreal Mafia going all way back to the Paolo Violi era. After Violi was assassinated by the Rizzuto in a move to take over Di Maulo and the Cotroni clan wisely went along with the Rizzuto clan. But in 2003 after the arrest of Vito Rizzuto and his father Di Maulo felt the winds of power beginning to shift.
Sal “the iron worker” Montagna
Then Montreal born Sal Montagna who grew up in Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily who had risen through the ranks of the New York mafia to become boss of the Bonanno family enters the Montreal mafia scene. In 2009 Montagna was given an option by U.S. immigration to return to Italy or his native country Canada , so he choose Montreal where he could continue to function as a “boss”. Montagna like some other began to notice that Vito Rizzuto had lost the confidence of the underworld in Montreal especially among the younger generation. So in 2010 Montagna began making trips to Hamilton and Toronto meeting with powerful businessmen like Domenico Arcuri who along with his brother owned a firm called Carbon Neutral that did work for Raynald Desjardins. It is believed that Arcuri introduced Desjardins and his brother in law Di Maulo to Montagna.
Now Montagna was better connected and had more support in underworld circles then Rizzuto had all way from New York to Ontario. Now Montagna not afraid let the Rizzuto’s know that their reign was over and began to exercise his power. Some believe that the Calabrian mafia or Ndrangheta may have also had a hand in things and could possibly be aligned with these new faces taking over Montreal’s criminal underworld. As the dust continues to settle in Montreal more and more answers will begin to surface and possibly bring with it some added clarity to many of these events.
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