Four arrested in four Mafia killings that targeted Rizzuto clan

[Fughedaboutit]

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local- ... ur-arrests

In an extraordinary joint operation involving more than 100 members of Quebec police organizations, four people described by police as “members of Montreal’s Italian Mafia” were arrested Wednesday morning.

The four — three men and one woman — are expected to be arraigned Thursday on multiple charges related to four killings that took place in 2016, including those of Rocco Sollecito and Lorenzo Giordano, who both have links to the Rizzuto crime family.

“There is an assumption that these organized crime murders generally can’t be solved,” said Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Chief Inspector Guy Lapointe. “For us, this sends a really clear message to organized crime members that these murders can’t just be committed without fear of being arrested.”

Lapointe added that police believe the killing of Salvatore Scoppa, a Mafia leader who was shot dead in May of this year in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Laval, was probably committed to avenge the 2016 murders of Sollecito and Giordano.

“To us, Scoppa and Massari were the leaders behind these four homicides (in 2016), and for us the murder of Scoppa was a response to those homicides,” Lapointe said.

Arrested are: Jonathan Massari, 38, Dominico Scarfo, 47, Guy Dion, 48, and Marie-Josée Viau, 44. According to the Journal de Montréal, Dion is the fire chief in Saint-Jude, a village of about 1,200 people 70 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Viau is Dion’s spouse, and she is also the sister-in-law of Massari, the newspaper reports.

“These are all individuals that have been around the organization, running drug-trafficking rings,” Lapointe said. “For us it’s clear these individuals are related to the Italian Mafia. There is no question there.”

He said the four will be charged with planning and executing the murders of Giordano, gunned down in a parking lot in Laval in March of 2016, and Sollecito, shot in his car in Laval in May of 2016. The four are also suspected in the disappearance and presumed homicides of brothers Vincenzo and Giuseppe Falduto, who were last seen in Montreal in July of 2016.

Lapointe said one of the search warrants being executed on Wednesday was expected to result in the discovery of the remains of the Falduto brothers.

Members of the SQ and the Montreal police participated in Wednesday’s operation, along with members of the organized crime squad ENRCO, which is composed of police officers from the SQ, as well as the police forces of Montreal, Quebec City, Laval and Lévis.

Police executed eight search warrants in six residences, a business and one vehicle in Montreal, Saint-Jude and Terrebonne. They seized six handguns, 19 rifles, three automatic weapons, 200 boxes of ammunition, two silencers, 10 detonators, and other material that could be used to assemble explosives, as well as a motorcycle police believe was used in Sollecito’s killing. Police have interviewed or will interview at least 25 witnesses as part of the investigation.

Lapointe said he expects to announce more results of the 10-month operation, dubbed Projet Préméditer, in the coming days.

Police believe the killings are related to a decades-long struggle for control of the drug trade in Montreal between competing Mafia factions originating in Calabria and Sicily, Lapointe said.

“We know that right now Italian organized crime is trying to reorganize itself and there are individuals who are taking steps to take power, to take control. … I won’t go into too much detail, but I can say that for us, Rocco Sollecito was an individual who exerted a very big influence. He was really someone who directed the operations in certain ways … and Giordano was an individual who also played an important role, but not at the same level.”

Massari, who police believe conspired with Scoppa to kill Giordano, Sollecito and the Falduto brothers, has been known to be involved with the Montreal Mafia since at least 2011.
In April 2011, police sought to arrest Massari along with more than 50 other people, in Operation Pastille, a Sûreté du Québec investigation into a vast network of drug traffickers who operated mostly in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, but also elsewhere in Quebec. Massari could not be located when the first series of arrests were made, but police managed to locate him weeks later.

According to a court decision related to Operation Pastille, on Sept. 1, 2010, while Massari was under investigation, police secretly recorded a telephone conversation between Massari and an unidentified person, in which Massari said he had killed someone “on the street” in the past.

Massari was alleged to have used his contacts in Montreal to obtain drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy. In turn, he used the drugs to control drug trafficking in Roberval and Dolbeau-Mistassini.

A year after the Operation Pastille arrests were made, Massari pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, four counts of drug trafficking and a gangsterism-related charge in a courthouse in Chicoutimi. He was sentenced to a five-year prison term.

[Adam]

Wow. Sidenote, I've never heard of the Falduto brothers. Not that I'm a Montreal expert, but I try to keep up.

[Fughedaboutit]

Wow. Sidenote, I've never heard of the Falduto brothers. Not that I'm a Montreal expert, but I try to keep up.

It's like the wild west in Canada

[mr white]

For a long time everyone thought that Salvatore Scoppa killed the Falduto brothers and I've read talk on the boards of him killing several of his own crew members under him and his house was raided by the police over the missing falduto Brothers but it now seems clear from these charges that the police think that it was an outside hit...

[aleksandrored]

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

[antimafia]

Trial begins for couple charged with murdering brothers who disappeared in 2016

https://montrealgazette.com/news/trial- ... ed-in-2016

[OcSleeper]

The conspiracy allegedly included Salvatore Scoppa, who was killed in May 2019, and a man who became a police informant, whose name cannot be published due to a publication ban.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but do you think this is referring to Andrew Scoppa? I'm not sure if they would still protect his name even though he's dead and the fact everyone knows he was an informant.

If it's not Andrew Scoppa hopefully we get some new info about what was going on during this time.

[antimafia]

^^^^
It's not a dumb question.

However, I can think of at least three reasons the informant in this investigation was probably not Andrew Scoppa:

1. The ENRCO investigators in the operation had at least one recorded conversation between the informant and Scoppa (the informant was using a recording device).

2. Law enforcement already suspected Scoppa of also ordering the murders but did not have enough evidence to arrest him alongside the others who were arrested.

3. The publication ban is likely protecting the identity of the informant, not the reputation of Scoppa (who was murdered). (But it should be noted that in Quebec, unlike the rest of Canada, the descendants of a "defamed" individual may be able to sue if they can demonstrate that their reputation has been harmed as a result of their ancestor being defamed.)

[chin_gigante]

I'm assuming Massari will be tried seperately for the killing of the Faldutos when he and Scarfo go on trial for the Sollecito and Giordano murders?

[JeremyTheJew]

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

NOTHING in that series can even be compared to reality. Just the names.

Similar to what roemer did with WAR OF THE GODFATHERS

[motorfab]

Not exactly about the Montreal war, but Mafia Inc. is a really cool movie (good luck for find it with english subs)

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito as alleged underboss

[JeremyTheJew]

Not exactly about the Montreal war, but Mafia Inc. is a really cool movie (good luck for find it with english subs)

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito as alleged underboss

They made a MOVIE on mafia inc?? Wow. I really want to get my hands on that.
Same with the Toto rinna Sicilian series. What country are you?? Your Germany right??

[motorfab]

Not exactly about the Montreal war, but Mafia Inc. is a really cool movie (good luck for find it with english subs)

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito as alleged underboss

They made a MOVIE on mafia inc?? Wow. I really want to get my hands on that.
Same with the Toto rinna Sicilian series. What country are you?? Your Germany right??

No, French the movie Mafia Inc is an adaptation loosely inspired by the book of the same name and the names are changed. The film is very very good, even if I have trouble with the French Canadian speaking (take my word for it, it's not the same French as me ), but other than that it's one of the coolest mafia films that I have seen in recent years with Il Traditore (the film about Buscetta released 2 years ago). We talk a little with antimfia here if you want the synopsis and all that viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4103

The series on Riina "Il Capo dei Capi" was released in France at the time, and having seen it, I confirm that it is excellent too. I believe there are English or American dvds because I saw them once while looking for something else.

This series also has a "true false" sequel called "Ultimo Padrino" in 2 episodes based on the hunt for Bernardo Provenzano with the excellent Michele Placido in Provenzano. Real names are never mentioned, but there's no doubt the show is about that. I used the term "true false" because I believe that they are the same creators and that the actors are almost the same but in different roles. Again if you can I recommend viewing, you will not be disappointed

[aleksandrored]

Not exactly about the Montreal war, but Mafia Inc. is a really cool movie (good luck for find it with english subs)

I don't know much about the Rizzuto family, just for the Bad Blood series, who would be the boss these days?

Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito as alleged underboss

Thanks fella.

[OcSleeper]

Falduto brothers were killed by a Mafia hitman, prosecutor tells jury

The key witness is the man who carried out the 2016 slayings and decided to become an informant for Montreal police, the prosecutor says.

Two brothers from Montreal were killed by a hitman hired by the Mafia and their bodies incinerated before their ashes were scattered in a river, a prosecutor told a jury while delivering her opening statement Monday in what is expected to be a lengthy murder trial.

Isabelle Poulin also said the key witness in the trial is the man who actually carried out the slayings in 2016 and decided to become an informant for the police in December 2018.

Poulin said the couple on trial at the Gouin courthouse in northern Montreal — Guy Dion, 49, and Marie-Josée Viau, 46, of St-Jude — were involved before and after the murders took place.

“Contrary to most murder cases, there were no bodies found in this case. Why? Because Marie-Josée Viau and Guy Dion burned the remains under an open sky on the large plot of land at their residence in St-Jude,” Poulin said. “They goy rid of the ashes in a river next to their property.”

Poulin also said the couple got rid of the murder weapon and the vehicle the brothers used to drive to their property.

“In brief, they got rid of all traces of the murders that took place on their property,” she said.

They are charged with the first-degree murders of brothers Vincenzo and Giuseppe Falduto. They are also charged with taking part in a conspiracy to kill the brothers along with Salvatore Scoppa, who is now dead.

Poulin said gasoline and wood were used to incinerate the bodies on the couple’s land in St-Jude, a small town near St-Hyacinthe.

The informant is expected to testify at the trial, Poulin said. A publication ban has been placed on the informant’s name. Poulin said the deaths of the Falduto brothers likely would have remained unsolved if he had not come forward.

Poulin said the informant was a hitman who killed for the Mafia and the murders were carried out inside the couple’s garage. The prosecutor also said an attempt was made to lure the Faldutos to the same property two weeks before they were killed on June 30, 2016.

“You will understand who (the informant) is,” Poulin told the jury while summarizing what to expect of his testimony. “He will explain that he was paid by the Italian Mafia to kill people. (The informant) was a hitman. It was he who caused the deaths of the two brothers but he was not alone.”

The prosecutor said the informant is no angel and has a lengthy criminal record.

Poulin also said the couple helped out in the execution of the murders by somehow making noises on their property while the brothers were inside their garage.

During the investigation, the couple were recorded without their knowledge.

The trial is expected to continued into September.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local- ... ssion=true