Montreal Mafia status - Post Rizzuto Era

[CabriniGreen]

My thinking was that Montreal people used the gangs, not Pat... I don't think they could retaliate if they wanted to. If they could have, I think they would have by now......

No, my thinking was someone in Montreal ( Calabrian faction) tried to push the Musitanos out of Hamilton, and Montreal, ( the Rizzutos) responded, hence the gangbangers from Montreal. ( I'm assuming the Musitanos were like the Rizzutos proxies in Hamilton..)

And that these people, whomever they are, TOLD the Violis about it. I was just wondering if this could have been the Scoppas,

Maybe it was an emerging ndrangheta clan that hit the Musitanos, after Verduci, I'm not sure who succeeded him in Hamilton....

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when Violi made this statement, were the Scoppas hitting the Rizzutos guys? Or no?

I'm trying to figure if the Violis knew, or didn't know what the Scoppas were doing...

[antimafia]

Enza Esposito, wife of the Nicola Valiente (Valiante?) who was a driver for the murdered Andrew Scoppa, is one of two women charged and arrested in the US per article to which I’ve linked below.

‪Trafic d’armes: deux Montréalaises arrêtées et accusées aux États-Unis

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2020 ... -unis-.php

[Lupara]

My thinking was that Montreal people used the gangs, not Pat... I don't think they could retaliate if they wanted to. If they could have, I think they would have by now......

No, my thinking was someone in Montreal ( Calabrian faction) tried to push the Musitanos out of Hamilton, and Montreal, ( the Rizzutos) responded, hence the gangbangers from Montreal. ( I'm assuming the Musitanos were like the Rizzutos proxies in Hamilton..)

And that these people, whomever they are, TOLD the Violis about it. I was just wondering if this could have been the Scoppas,

Maybe it was an emerging ndrangheta clan that hit the Musitanos, after Verduci, I'm not sure who succeeded him in Hamilton....

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when Violi made this statement, were the Scoppas hitting the Rizzutos guys? Or no?

I'm trying to figure if the Violis knew, or didn't know what the Scoppas were doing...

I think the hits on the Musitano family is a local affair. I think the Calabrian factions in Montreal have better things to do than suddenly going after the Musitanos in Hamilton. Just my logic, who knows...

As for the Violis/Scoppas, I think they acted in conjunction. The Violis were meeting people of the old Calabrian faction in Montreal at the time. I think it's unlikely the Scoppas acted without such support. When Vincenzo Spagnolo was killed, it was stated in one of the articles that the order came from Ontario if I recall correctly. While I don't believe the Scoppas would do the biding of others, they likely had support because high profile hits need to have some kind of sanction if you don't want it to backfire. I think the elder Spagnolo just as Giordano and Sollecito was a made member.

When Violi was recorded, it was at a time when the leaders of the Sicilian faction were jailed while the others were killed. News articles at the time stated there was a horizontal hierarchy among the clans so Violi may have been referring to that situation.

It's interesting Arcadi isn't listed on the chart under the Rizzuto group. The Violis apparantly met with him at the time too which reaffirms Violi's statement.

[CabriniGreen]

I think the hits on the Musitano family is a local affair. I think the Calabrian factions in Montreal have better things to do than suddenly going after the Musitanos in Hamilton. Just my logic, who knows...

I mean you are probably right, but how you phrase it is interesting.." local affair".... I would have thought the Violis hit them as they would be the local competition, but apparently they didnt, but knew about it..... I keep wondering WHO TOLD THEM? Wasn't really trying to go Into the Musitanos, just trying to decipher Violis words on tap.... thinking aloud......

As for the Violis/Scoppas, I think they acted in conjunction. The Violis were meeting people of the old Calabrian faction in Montreal at the time. I think it's unlikely the Scoppas acted without such support. When Vincenzo Spagnolo was killed, it was stated in one of the articles that the order came from Ontario if I recall correctly. While I don't believe the Scoppas would do the biding of others, they likely had support because high profile hits need to have some kind of sanction if you don't want it to backfire. I think the elder Spagnolo just as Giordano and Sollecito was a made member.

When Violi was recorded, it was at a time when the leaders of the Sicilian faction were jailed while the others were killed. News articles at the time stated there was a horizontal hierarchy among the clans so Violi may have been referring to that situation.

It's interesting Arcadi isn't listed on the chart under the Rizzuto group. The Violis apparantly met with him at the time too which reaffirms Violi's statement.

Yes, that's a good take on it. Agreed, it's what I was leaning towards, just wanted to hear it from someone else...

What really interest me is how people keep seeking out the Violis..... they to me really are the key, more than is Buffalo is or isnt....

[Lupara]

I mean you are probably right, but how you phrase it is interesting.." local affair".... I would have thought the Violis hit them as they would be the local competition, but apparently they didnt, but knew about it..... I keep wondering WHO TOLD THEM? Wasn't really trying to go Into the Musitanos, just trying to decipher Violis words on tap.... thinking aloud......

He may have been deliberately vague, even if the guy he talked to was another made member. I don't think Violi had an obligation to report to a member of another family about his internal affairs in case he was behind this. But I've been wondering about the same as you if he was indeed referring to other people. If he was, he was imo either referring to people across the border (which articles have been hinting at) or other Calabrians in the area.

[Laurentian]

Laval: des cocktails Molotov lancés chez un couple connu pour ses liens avec le crime organisé

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/ ... e-organise

****

La maison d’un importateur de cocaïne ciblée par un cocktail Molotov à Laval

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/just ... -laval.php

[Laurentian]

Laval: des cocktails Molotov lancés chez un couple connu pour ses liens avec le crime organisé

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/ ... e-organise

****

La maison d’un importateur de cocaïne ciblée par un cocktail Molotov à Laval

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/just ... -laval.php

****
Une garderie de Saint-Sulpice ciblée par un incendie criminel

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/just ... iminel.php

[johnny_scootch]

Montreal Mafia: More flourishing in "free trade"

Six years after the death of Vito Rizzuto, the Montreal mafia has lost its supremacy in the hands of the Hells Angels, but each of the different clans that compose it is more independent, stronger and richer than in the days of the Sicilians.

"I am not saying that the mafia is stronger, but that the different clans are stronger," Inspector David Bertrand, head of the Organized Crime Division of the Montreal Police Department , told La Presse .

"They're bigger and more self-reliant, unlike the days when there was a single base, a leader, a central person through which everything went. The clans, then, could not take flight. Today, they make their own imports and produce their drugs, they have their contacts, their distribution networks and act in different spheres of criminal activity. "

"The Hells Angels have control in Quebec but also in Montreal. What we realize is that all the other strains of organized crime are accountable to the Hells Angels, "says Chief Inspector Guy Lapointe of the Sûreté du Québec, which has the mandate of fighting bikers in Canada. Quebec.

Finished the pyramid

Thanks to information from various sources gleaned in recent months, as well as reading legal documents, La Presse has drawn up an organization chart of the main actors of the mafia and the Hells Angels that make up Montreal organized crime, and some links that unite them.

It consists of a nebula of about twenty individuals, groups and clans revolving around a core of half a dozen "decision-makers" related to the Hells Angels, who make sure the system works .

"It's clear that between the Hells Angels there is a hierarchy. Not all members have the same influence. Some have leading roles while others have marginal roles, "says Chief Inspector Lapointe.

The structure of organized crime in Montreal is no longer pyramidal, since the end of Sicilian rule, but cellular. The mafia no longer has a godfather or executive table.

Relatively untouched since Operation Magot-Mastiff, the last major police operation that decapitated Montreal's organized crime four years ago, it has regained strength within a mafia-type free trade market. bikers and gangs that, for the moment at least, work.

Most of the mafia clans have bent their heads in front of influential Hells Angels, but they gravitate and do business around and with them. Drug importation, drug trafficking, money laundering and transportation, sports betting, fraud or recycling with cryptocurrency, prostitution, violent crime, etc. ; Mafiosi and bikers exchange services between themselves, on a regular or punctual basis, in a system that brings them a lot of money.

A symbolic wedding

Without commenting on our organizational chart and the reading we can draw from it, Officers Lapointe and Bertrand answered our questions about organized crime in Montreal.

Both believe that the wedding of Hells Angel Martin Robert in a sumptuous reception hall in downtown Montreal last December - to which members of the mafia and other criminal groups were invited - is representative of the current portrait of organized crime in Montreal

"We would never have seen this 10 years ago. We are no longer in the traditions in the Mafia, "says Inspector Bertrand.

The police no longer speak systematically among themselves of "traditional Italian organized crime" (COTI), but of Italian organized crime. The traditional word has been evacuated.

Previously, we associated because we had emigrated together, we came from the same city or the same region. Today, people come together because they grew up in the same sector, they want to make money and they need a service or a contact.

"The concept of men of honor no longer exists. Whereas before, allegiances and loyalty dictated the ways of doing criminal organizations, today is the lure of gain that is the proof of everything, "says Chief Inspector Lapointe.

Without godfather

The two officers do not believe that the mafia will choose a new sponsor in the short or medium term, because its members make money anyway, so that they are not focused on the spotlight of the police and media and because becoming a leader carries his share of risk.

David Bertrand does not believe that other internal wars could occur in the near future, because of the agreements reached between the groups on the street.

But Chief Inspector Lapointe is not so sure. "Despite the fact that, for us, the Hells Angels' control over Montreal's territory contributes to maintaining a certain stability, it still persists in the mafia of tensions and old accounts that have still not been settled. The control of the bikers makes it possible to settle accounts without having obtained a green light in advance, "he says.

Transition period ?

Police sources who requested anonymity believe that the mafia is still in transition, that one of its groups could, in an indeterminate future, assert at the expense of another.

It is in this context of change of guard that Ital Gelati creamery, one of the symbols of the time of the domination of the Sicilian mafia which belonged to the Arcuri family, was closed a few months ago, and that member of the former clan of Moreno Gallo allegedly sold his coffee company. One or two other emerging clans would seek to take over and infiltrate these areas of the legal economy.

Our anonymous sources believe that possible retirements of members of the old guard and the release of influential actors in the short or medium term could provoke new tensions within Montreal's organized crime and upset structures and alliances in place.

Anatomy of the new mafia

La Presse has created an organizational chart of the main actors of organized crime and the links that unite them. The structure is no longer pyramidal but consists of a nebula of about twenty individuals, groups and clans gravitating around a nucleus of half a dozen "decision-makers". Here they are.

At the heart of free trade

Although he no longer officially wears the colors of the Hells Angels, Mario Brouillette would be the most influential actor of organized crime in Montreal according to the SQ, which considers him still closely linked to the biker club.

In 2008, Brouillette, 47, was sentenced to more than five years in cocaine trafficking penitentiary, before receiving another sentence in the wake of Operation SharQc in 2009. According to our sources, he took care of former godfather Nicolo Rizzuto, while the patriarch was detained pending trial.

In this top 5 is also Martin Robert, 44, whose princely wedding made the headlines in December. Robert, who has an international Hells Angel status, would have a lot of contacts around the world and would multiply trips abroad. He would also have strong ties to members of Kanesatake's Aboriginal organized crime.

Follow the Hells Angels Stephane Plouffe, Salvatore Cazzetta - who referee conflicts, but who, at age 64, would have started talking about retirement - and Salvatore Brunetti.

The friend of all

Giuseppe Focarazzo, 44, aka Gator because of his alligator-shaped tattoo, is said to be involved in the financing and recycling of money, police say. He would be the new strongman of Laval. There is a cafe, a few doors from Romcafé, headquarters of the Sicilian clan. He would patronize them as well as bikers and gang members, who also respect him. The headlines of the last few months that he won a Loto-Québec draw and that he was stolen in the United States would have made quite a lot of noise in the community.

Sicilians and their allies

From father to son

The Sicilian Clan, members include members of the 3 th and 2 th generations of Mafia families established, would still be the most influential of the Montreal Mafia. Vito Salvaggio, Leonardo Rizzuto, Nicola Spagnolo, Liborio Cuntrera and Stefano Sollecito are still associated with the clan, according to our sources. However, while in November 2015, Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto were considered by the police as interim mafia leaders, the police no longer label them. The Sicilian clan would continue to run one of the most important branches of illegal sports betting in the Montreal area. Its members are frequently challenged by the police in the trendy bars and restaurants of the metropolis.

The Glave

Gregory Woolley is spending the last years of an eight-year sentence imposed following his arrest in Operation Magot-Mastiff in November 2015. Prior to this date, he was seen by the police as one of the leaders of the Hells Angels-mafia-gang alliance dismantled during the strike, the one that made the connection between bikers and mafiosi. Despite his detention, Woolley, who relies on trusted men on the ground, is still considered by our sources as an influential actor of organized crime. He would still be close to some individuals linked to the Sicilian clan.

Foreman

Nicknamed the "street boss" by specialists in the fight against organized crime in Quebec, Davide Barberio would be the one who solve the problems on the street and thus help maintain a certain peace between the clans. Barberio, aka Baldy, was charged in the aftermath of the Clemenza investigation, but he benefited from a stay of proceedings. He would be close to Marco Pizzi, accused like him after the Clemenza investigation. Sources believe that Barberio also has contact with the Mirarchi clan, if needed.

The survivor

In 2016, Marco Pizzi escaped a spectacular murder attempt. Two men who followed him in a van stamped his car and grabbed machine guns, before giving up their project because of the presence of children nearby. At the same time, some of his buildings and vehicles were targets of arson. But today, things seem to have calmed down for Pizzi. According to our sources, it has some influence in the Rivière-des-Prairies neighborhood and is closely linked to the Sicilian clan.

The Freedmen

The ghost

Condemned for plotting the murder of aspiring sponsor Salvatore Montagna, committed in 2011, Vittorio Mirarchi, aka Victor, protected by Raynald Desjardins, has been conducting his business very discreetly since his release from prison, almost two years ago. "It's a ghost," says a policeman. Mirarchi is suspicious. In the weeks following his release, he would not have owned any cell phones. Vittorio Mirarchi, 41, is surrounded by a close guard whose loyalty is flawless. The recent marriages of two of his relatives have shown that it will be difficult to put the knife in the oyster of his organization. During the Clemenza investigation, in which the RCMP attacked emerging clans of the mafia in 2011, the investigators collected evidence that the clan was involved in large-scale cocaine imports, but Mirarchi has never been charged with such crimes. According to our information, the clan would control some of the illegal sports betting in Montreal. The group would be fairly independent of other mafia clans and bikers, but would have strong support from a mafia family in Ontario.

The riddle

Raynald Desjardins is still spending the last years of a jail sentence for plotting the murder of the aspiring sponsor Salvatore Montagna in 2011. What will happen when he leaves the penitentiary is, for the police, an enigma. The police believe that the star and the influence of the boss have faded since his arrest, but in the past, Desjardins has always enjoyed strong support, including some influential members of the Hells Angels of Trois-Rivières, according to our information. When he leaves the penitentiary, Desjardins will be around 67 years old.

Out of the shadows

Established in the north of Montreal for several years, the Lopez-Oliverio clan has always conducted its affairs discreetly before the spotlight of the SQ investigators is focused on him during the Magot-Mastiff investigation (between 2013 and 2015). Three brothers, Franco, Giuseppe and Pasquale Lopez, are accused of supplying the former organization of Patrick Corbeil with cocaine while it was out of stock during the investigation. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround, they should be tried for conspiracy and cocaine trafficking in January, more than four years after their arrest. In 2018, a building that houses a family-owned business in northern Montréal caught fire when a fire broke out in cryptocurrency servers installed in the basement.

The black sheep

According to our sources, Andrew Scoppa has been blacklisted by the rest of the mafia. He would be alone and isolated since he benefited from a stay of proceedings in a case of possession of 100 kilograms of cocaine in May 2018, and the spectacular murder of his brother Salvatore, committed in the lobby of a hotel in Laval last May, during a family party. But do not get away too quickly Andrew Scoppa, who knows a lot of people, has resources and has already managed to get out of trouble.


Self-employed

The rising star

Well established in the borough of LaSalle, Pietro D'Adamo is considered by the police as a rising star of organized crime in Montreal. In 2009, he was sentenced to more than six years in prison for conspiring to import 1300 kilograms of cocaine and for importing 300 kilograms of cocaine. D'Adamo would be very close to the most influential members of the traditional Irish organized crime, formerly called the West Gang.

The clover bruised

Traditional Irish organized crime in Montreal has had its share of problems in recent years; some of his Western Gang leaders died in a natural way and the Laramée brothers, whom the police saw as potential successors, were murdered in 2013. Another potential successor, Shane Kenneth Maloney, was was sentenced to a heavy sentence after being arrested in a major SQ investigation in 2012. The West Gang no longer exists, police say, but traditional Irish organized crime still has a replacement. Although weakened, he would still be present in the south-west of the island of Montreal and would still control some criminal activities in the port, according to our sources. Investigations by the SPVM and the SQ show promiscuity with the Montreal mafia and bikers.

The broker

The gang leader Arsene Mompoint is described by the police as an independent "broker" who fills all kinds of contracts for different criminal groups. However, things have recently turned out less well for the one called BM. He was the victim of a murder attempt in August and was arrested a month later in a major SPVM (Asterios) investigation against a drug and heroin trafficking network that operated mainly in the east. from Montreal. At the time of writing, Mompoint was still detained pending further proceedings.

Unclassifiable

Endangered?

The so-called "Calabrian" cell lost two of its most influential leaders: Giuseppe Di Maulo, brother-in-law of Raynald Desjardins, and Moreno Gallo, murdered in 2012 and 2013, presumably for lacking loyalty to Vito Rizzuto. Since, the radiation of this cell, which gathers former members of the Cotroni clan rallied to the Rizzuto after the coming to power of these, at the beginning of the 80s, decreases constantly. There is less and less talk of members of this group, some of whom would have retired and sold their legitimate businesses to emerging clans. The last members of this cell would be protected by a member of the Hells Angels of Montreal, Salvatore Brunetti. If there is a succession within this clan, it would have more affinities with the Sicilians.

The miracle

Antonio Pietrantonio, nicknamed Tony Suzuki because of a car dealership he already owned, miraculously survived a spectacular murder attempt in 2011, when the Desjardins, Montagna and Rizzuto clans were involved in a three-way fight. Formerly prominent in the Sicilian clan, Pietrantonio then had difficult years. However, his presence last December at the wedding of the influential Hells Angel Martin Robert, which he is very close, shows that he found a protector, believe our sources.

The traveler of the 401

While the name of Gianpietro Tiberio resounded in major investigations and that the police considered him as a major player in the mafia barely a year ago, we hear much less about him today. Tiberio attempted to enter the towing industry a few years ago, but there is no indication that it would still be the case. But if we see him less in Montreal and Quebec, the man would often be in Ontario, where he would have forged close ties with influential Hells Angels.

Other cells

The Mafia of Montreal has a few small cells that we hear less about, but are very present.

Including the Agostino-Albanese clan whose members have been targeted in a recent smuggling survey. According to our information, they paid a tax to the Violi (Ontario) clan, to which they were loyal at the time of the Calabrian rule in Montreal.

Another family is that of the Annunziata, whose sons are very close to Liborio Cuntrera and Hells Angel Salvatore Cazzetta.

[Wiseguy]

^ Very interesting article. Seems the internal fighting among the Italians has resulted in the Hells Angels becoming the top dogs for now. West End Gang gone but still some kind of Irish OC presence.

[CabriniGreen]

^ Very interesting article. Seems the internal fighting among the Italians has resulted in the Hells Angels becoming the top dogs for now. West End Gang gone but still some kind of Irish OC presence.

Try page 59, we kinda tackled this one already.....

You getting into this subject @Wiseguy?
It IS interesting as hell, you gotta admit? No?

[CabriniGreen]

In fact, we were confused when they showed the Montreal chart on the TV show, and there was no Tony Suzuki...

[Wiseguy]

^ Very interesting article. Seems the internal fighting among the Italians has resulted in the Hells Angels becoming the top dogs for now. West End Gang gone but still some kind of Irish OC presence.

Try page 59, we kinda tackled this one already.....

You getting into this subject @Wiseguy?
It IS interesting as hell, you gotta admit? No?

I've followed the subject as it has happened over the past several years. Pretty much since Project Colisee. However, it doesn't interest me as much as things on the U.S. side of the border.

[Lupara]

^ Very interesting article. Seems the internal fighting among the Italians has resulted in the Hells Angels becoming the top dogs for now. West End Gang gone but still some kind of Irish OC presence.

It's an outdated article.

[Wiseguy]

^ Very interesting article. Seems the internal fighting among the Italians has resulted in the Hells Angels becoming the top dogs for now. West End Gang gone but still some kind of Irish OC presence.

It's an outdated article.

I realize it came out in the later part of last year but I don't know if I'd consider that outdated.

[Moscone65]

It is outdated, lots has changed in montreal after andrea scoppa was clipped. The rizzutos have supposedly reorganized with the mirarchi clan and a bunch of the other small groups and are a much larger player again. The hells angels realized that and have forged even closer ties with them.