Montreal Shooting and Vito Rizzuto

Well I guess no gangsters out blog would be complete with out mentioning Vito Rizzuto. CBC reports that a fatal shooting in Montreal today could well be a revenge killing for the death of Vito Rizzuto's son Nick.

OK, I know nothing about the mob in Montreal or Toronto but a few news articles when viewed together make for an interesting read. They refer to Vito Rizzuto as the Teflon Don of Canada. Implying that he is involved with organized crime but has evaded prosecution for it. Yet other reports state he's in prison in the States. CBC calls him the Montreal Mafia Kingpin. The recent cafe firebombings in Montreal show extortion is alive and well in Canada.



I'm going to highlight three threads connected to Vito. The first is Alfonso Gagliano. Wikipedia claims that the Rizzutos are soldiers for the Bonnanno crime family in New York. They claim laws enforcement stated the Rizzutos are major drug traffickers importing and distributing tons of heroine and cocaine and profit greatly from loansharking and illegal gambling. Wikipedia also claims Rizzuto worked closely with the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana mafia clan who are major drug importers led in Canada by Alfonso Caruana.

Alfonso Gagliano was the book keeper for Alfonso Caruana's cousin Agostino Cuntrera. Gagliano was from the same small village in Sicily as the Cuntrera-Caruana mafia clan is from.

The New York Times reported that FBI informant Frank Lino claimed he was introduced to Gagliano at a mafia meeting in Montreal and was told Gagliano was a Canadian politician and made member of the mafia in Montreal connected to the Bonno and the Gambino crime families in New York. Gagliano denied it and sued the Canadian government for defamation and lost.



The second thread is Peter Scarcella in Toronto. He's another Sicilian mafioso who got his start driving the car for mafia leader Paul Volpe who was found dead in the trunk of his car. Scarcella was the last person to see Volpe alive. Since then, Scarcella has aligned himself with Vito Rizzuto in Montreal.



The third thread is Hells Angel Paris Christoforou. He was with Scarcella when they shot up a sandwich shop in Toronto and an innocent mother was hit and paralyzed. They were targeting mafia rival Mike Modica.

It's all kind of confusing but we can clearly see three common threads in this organized drug ring. Numerous reports about the Hells Angels being tied to the mafia in Montreal don't help either.

Please note that these gangsters are white despite the fact that one of the shooters in today's hit in Montreal was wearing a fake dreadlock wig so please stop the ridiculous racist remarks. Sending these guys back to Italy might help.