The Montreal mafia war rages on as multiple locations with links to the remaining members of the Rizzuto crime family have recently been targeted in arson attacks.
These types of arson attacks used in underworld circles to send a message have often been followed by more violence and a rise in the body count. These latest attacks may be linked to a fight for control of a lucrative mafia bookmaking operation run by the crumbling Sicilian based clan. The paris sports bookmaking operation is estimated to generate approx $26 million dollars a year and has long been a key Rizzuto family business. The once powerful Sicilian based crime family has continued to falter losing its grip on the Montreal underworld after the death of many of its high-ranking members during this ongoing bloody conflict.
The lucrative bookmaking operation is currently controlled by Montreal mob leader Stefano Sollecito according to multiple sources. He is believed to have inherited the operation from fellow mobster Lorenzo Giordano who was murdered earlier this year. Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto were identified as the new leaders of the Montreal mafia by authorities before their arrest on cocaine conspiracy charges in 2015. Stefano’s father Rocco Sollecito considered by many to also be a top leader of the Rizzuto family was also murdered in May further weakening the beleaguered organization. The reign of the Sicilian faction is seemingly at an end and wrestling away control of this vital business may be one of the final nails in its coffin.
It is unknown as to who exactly is behind these attacks on the Rizzuto family but many speculate that it may be the rival Calabrian-based Ndrangheta. The fight for the highly profitable bookmaking operation is about much more than a business it’s about power and control and who takes over the Montreal mafia moving forward. The once unified network of mobsters, bikers, street gangs, and corrupt officials held in place by now deceased powerful mob boss Vito Rizzuto has crumbled and the message from the start of this conflict seems clear that the reign of the Rizzuto’s will end. But the fight rages on as the Rizzuto’s have refused to go quietly and an end to the mafia war may not yet be in sight.
