Montreal mafia leader Rocco Sollecito was gunned down in broad daylight on Friday in the Montreal suburb of Laval.
According to reports, Sollecito was shot to death behind the wheel of his BMW SUV at an intersection near the Laval police headquarters and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Authorities believe the gunman was familiar with the 67-year-old mobsters routine and was waiting for him at a bus stop at the intersection. Witnesses reported hearing as many as eight gunshots and police have already classified the murder as a mafia hit.
“Rocco Sollecito”
Sollecito is but the latest in a string of murders targeting Montreal mafia members and specifically the old guard of the Rizzuto crime family in recent years. Rocco had deep roots in the Montreal mob and was a longstanding presence for years. He was a senior member of the Rizzuto family leadership and was very close to former leaders Vito Rizzuto and Nicolo Rizzuto and currently acted as a close advisor to his son Stefano Sollecito. Stefano and Vito’s son Leonardo Rizzuto took over as leaders of the Rizzuto family after Vito passed away.
A six-man mafia leadership table was formed which included Leonardo Rizzuto, Stefano Sollecito, and Lorenzo Giordano. But it didn’t last long as both Stefano and Leonardo were arrested back in November and remain in prison while Giordano was gunned down in a Laval parking lot just months after being released from prison. Stefano was alerted by police after his arrest of information that his life may have also been in danger. Author and journalist Antonio Nicaso told Vice.com he believes “There is a campaign to remove the management of the Rizzuto crime family. Someone wants to put an end to it…. No one is capable of leading a counterattack. I don’t see anyone among the old guard who is able to fight back.”
“Each time that the Mafia is in a period of turmoil, whether it’s the Sicilian or the American Mafia, it’s always because of a generational conflict, It’s the old guard versus the new guard,mafia-style,” said author and civilian analyst Pierre de Champlain. A transition in leadership is underway which may not end until the old guard of the Rizzuto family is completely eliminated. Neither de Champlain nor Nicaso were willing to speculate as to who was behind these attacks of what remains of the once-powerful Rizzuto clan but its clear the violence isn’t yet at an end.
Nicaso said, “In the Mafia, retirement is not an option, If you have to replace the top members of the organization, the only way to do it is to kill all of them.” He notes that the Rizzutos took power themselves by murdering the then-leaders of the Montreal Mafia in the late 1970s. But de Champlain believes the war is all but over and the Rizzuto family has lost as he noted: “We have to refer to the Rizzuto family in the past tense.”
Wow the hits just keep on coming for the Rizzuto family! Definitely not much left of the old guard and it sure seems to be an all out elimination of those guys by whomever is set to take over in Montreal. One can only speculate who has the reach and power to pull off this kind of a move.
Yeah, well, apparently the characterization of this new rabble as less of a “Cosa Nostra”-type organization and more of a “street gang” I think, is very accurate.
The days of “Strictly business” are over, as these clowns fight among themselves over the control of the whatever-latest-bottom-feeder-addict drug is. These people wouldn’t know “honour” if it slapped them in the face with a dead fish.
Its definitely not the mafia of old that is for sure. They have one real big mess in Montreal and the blood shed has to be costing everyone money.
Your right. Everything imploded when Vito was sent to Colorado and 2 years later Project Colisee took down 95 percent of the family.
Depending on the Spoiled Canadian Born Children of the Dons to run things, and the results will be what you mention above.
Some things come from within and obviously can’t just be passed down or taught.
It’s so funny how far down things have gone. Ever since Johnny Gotti ordered his crew that there would be hell to pay if he caught any of them going to see The Godfather “Life Imitates Art Imitates Life” has just gone around in big circles—circles around a big drain, that is.
These days “the lifestyle” is “hangin’ wit’ da homies and listenin’ to Lil’ Wayne” while motorcycle microcephalics “moi pi toi on va aller ala bank, loh” and is so, so far removed from the sun-dappled hills of Sicily that it’s like comparing grappa with “Here, grappa Super-Dry XXX, loh”
Pathetic. The more they whack each other, the better off they’ll be, like their wannabe pals, ISIS. Every suicide bomber is one off the list, and with the Mobtreal whackings it’s one more loser who won’t be polluting the gene pool. You go, Leo!