Montreal mafia figure Francesco Del Balso shot and killed near local gym
A prominent member of Montreal’s organized crime was shot and killed on Monday afternoon.
In Dorval on Montreal’s West Island, Francesco Del Balso was shot near a local Monster Gym.
Upon the arrival of police, Del Balso was pronounced dead at the scene.
Del Balso was arrested in 2006 as part of the Montreal Mafia’s Operation Colisée purge. He was found guilty of gang activity and cocaine smuggling conspiracy.
After being freed from jail in 2016, his return to custody was mandated due to safety concerns. A parole board from that time decided that he was potentially the next victim of the Montreal War.
After his release in 2018, he was detained by Laval, Quebec police in September 2022 in relation to threats and extortion against local nuns.
His house and the residences of three prominent Hells Angels members were both searched by the Sûreté du Québec in March of last year as part of a drug trafficking investigation.
The gangland hit is the third Canadian-mafia-related slaying in 2023, like the failed attempt on Leonardo Rizzuto’s life in March, which some believe Del Balso was responsible for
The daughter-in-law of Montreal Mafia member Moreno Gallo, Claudia Iacona, was shot and murdered on May 16 in the parking lot of her beauty parlor in the neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
With the death of Del Balso, it is evident that the Montreal mafia war is far from conclusion.
