My thinking at the moment is there’s a few potential scenarios that may have occurred:CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 4:10 am An article behind a pay wall has a headline that the bountie on DelBalso was payable in coke.
Makes you ask the question... WHO could pay in coke? Besides Miriarchi? Does this mean Miriarchi is firmly with the sicilians and not an independent?
Was a faction of the Hells under Martin Robert trying to sieze a portion of the sportsbets? Have they abdicated that claim now?
If this conflict was over Bookmaking, who (maybe?) took the contract for coke? Gangs?
When I saw Whooley was back in the fold, I felt like Rizzutos had gained some breathing room.....
Question....WHAT Bikers gave up Del Balso? His allies like Robert, or the others that were against all of this?
Is Martin Robert' in danger now? Or will the tension ease now?
* Option 1 - Del Balso was close with the bikers, and wanted to cement that relationship by removing Rizzuto and becoming boss of the Italians. It was revenge for his belief that Rizzuto was behind the attempted hit on him, but the larger motivation was to take over everything. He didn’t inform the bikers ahead of time of his plans, and assumed with Rizzuto out of the way the bikers would fall in line. In this scenario, he underestimates the bikers loyalty to the Rizzutos and they decide to take him out.
* Option 2 - Del Balso told the bikers of his plans to take out Rizzuto ahead of time and was told to do what he had to do. However, the bikers in reality were playing it neutral and waiting to see who came out on top, in order to align themselves with the winning side. Once Rizzuto survived the attempted shooting, and once Gallo’s daughter in law gets killed, the bikers quickly realize the violence is spiraling and Del Balso is too much of a liability to side with him.
* Option 3 - The bikers are initially 100% on Del Balso’s side in his plans to takeover. With Cazzetta out of the way, new HA leader Martin Robert wants to forge his own path with a new leader of the Italians. The bikers are now closer to Del Balso than Rizzuto and realize if they support Del Balso in his coup that he’ll be more loyal to them than Rizzuto ever was as he’d be indebted to them. However, once Rizzuto survives the hit and the woman gets killed, they shift their alliances as they realize Del Balso failed in plans and the heat is too strong on everyone.
It should be noted that the bikers may have differing factions and loyalties, and they may not necessarily all want the same outcome.
Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if Montreal police approached both Rizzuto and the bikers and told them to take out Del Balso and end the war. Del Balso reportedly met with Martin minutes before he was killed. That’s extremely brazen, but less so if he already knew the police would sabotage any investigation. There were reports that Marco Pizzi was approached by the police a while back to help calm gang violence in the city, so there’s appearently prescedent. Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to that beautiful, corrupt, chaotic city.