With Sicilian Mafia in Rapid Decline, Just Who Is Running the Mob in Montreal?
Nick Rose
Vice
July 27th, 2015
Read the full story here.
Nick Rose
Vice
July 27th, 2015
Vito Rizzuto was the Steve Jobs of organized crime. Charismatic, visionary and shrewd enough to run a billion-dollar enterprise with tentacles reaching from Montreal to New York, South America and Europe.
Because of its location along the St-Lawrence river and proximity to US markets, Montreal has always been a major point of entry for drugs, guns and basically whatever else you can fit into a shipping container.
And for the good part of three decades, Rizzuto had his hand in almost every racket in the city, heading a "consortium" of organized crime which included Colombian cartels, Irish gangs who controlled the city's port and Hells Angels who took care of distribution of drugs across Quebec and Ontario.
Rizzuto's death in December 2013—from natural causes—has left many speculating about his replacement and sources we spoke to hinted at a dramatic decline in the Sicilian Mafia's power in Montreal and Canada since his passing.
With the rise of Haitian street gangs, the imminent release of numerous Hells Angels from prison, and rival Italian factions, there is no shortage of conspiracy theories surrounding Vito Rizzuto's replacement. Chief among those theories is that the Ontario-based Calabrian mafia, also known as the 'Ndrangheta, is moving in and getting revenge after having been violently pushed out of the city by Vito's father in the 1970s.
Read the full story here.
