Leonardo Rizzuto victim of attempted murder

Leonardo Rizzuto, the youngest son of the late Montreal mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto, was shot in the leg on Wednesday afternoon at the corner of highways 13 and 440 in Laval, while he was aboard his vehicle.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) reported having been called to the scene of the Alfred-Dallaire funeral complex around 4:30 p.m. Spokesperson Stéphane Tremblay indicated that a person had been injured, but that does not fear for his life.

It would be a drive by shooting, according to our information. In other words, Rizzuto would have been hit while he was in his vehicle, not far from the funeral center. He was accompanied by another person at the time of being targeted. The vehicle Rizzuto was in then drove to the funeral home.

Highway 440 was closed to traffic in the area to allow investigators to establish a scene. The Major Crimes Section took charge of the investigation.

Various police sources confirmed on Wednesday to The Press that the person targeted was indeed Leonardo Rizzuto, 53 years old. The latter, who has the title of lawyer, has no criminal history except for impaired driving cases dating from the early 1990s. However, he is considered by the police to be one of the leaders of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia and one of the influential members of Montreal organized crime.

Several patrollers from the Laval police and the Sûreté du Québec were dispatched to the scene on Wednesday. Rizzuto’s car, a Mercedez-Benz GLC, had flat tires. There were also at least eight bullet holes on the left front window, indicating that the shots may have initially been aimed at Rizzuto’s head.

A person in charge of the funeral center met on the spot indicated that the establishment will not make any comment on this event for the moment.

The young guardian Alexandra Geramoutsos was in an apartment located in front of the funeral center when the event occurred. “I saw an ambulance and several police cars arrive suddenly. And they erected a police perimeter quickly, ”she says.

“We always play in the corner, her and me. We often walk in the neighborhood, continues M^me Geramoutsos talking about the young girl she regularly babysits. Of course that worries me. If it was her or me… Now, we wonder if we will continue to do all this. She is like my little sister. »

At the time, Maryse, a resident of the neighborhood, also said that she heard nothing, but saw several patrol cars arriving at a whirlwind. “We thought it must be serious, we wondered if someone had fired inside the establishment. Then we understood by reading the news, ”she exclaims in the frame of her door.

Operation Magot-Mastiff

Leonardo Rizzuto was arrested in November 2015 in Operation Magot-Mastiff in which the Sûreté du Québec beheaded a mafia-biker-gang alliance that ran Montreal’s organized crime, and was charged with gangsterism and possession of a weapon fist and drugs.

But the evidence came mainly from a conversation picked up during the investigation by microphones installed by the police in the conference room of former criminal lawyer Loris Cavaliere. The police then obtained a warrant allowing them to search his home, where they found the weapon and a small amount of cocaine.

But Rizzuto challenged the legality of the wiretap, which he said violated attorney-client privilege, and won. The search warrant was therefore invalidated and Leonardo Rizzuto was acquitted, as was Stefano Sollecito, also considered one of the leaders of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia.

A targeted family

Leonardo’s older brother, Nicola Rizzuto Junior, was murdered in December 2009 in what was the genesis of an attempted coup against the family by rebel clans of the Montreal Mafia.

His grandfather and former godfather, Nicola Rizzuto, and his uncle, Paolo Renda, were murdered and abducted, respectively — without ever being found — in November and May 2010, during the same coup attempt.

Vito Rizzuto, for his part, died of natural causes in December 2013. The attempted murder of Leonardo Rizzuto must be considered a major event in the criminal world in Montreal and could cause an escalation. Several individuals linked to organized crime have been warned by the police that their lives have been in danger for a year, but these warnings are commonplace in the community.

Although police sources have reported some tensions within the mafia in recent months, others have told us recently that the situation has been much calmer since the elimination in 2019 of the brothers Salvatore and Andrew Scoppa who also had took part in a power war against Sicilians in 2016, according to police.

To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.