Francesco Del Balso a Montreal mafia lieutenant under former godfather Vito Rizzuto has reportedly moved his operations to Quebec.
According to reports Del Balso has been living in Quebec city for months and has been caught attempting to extort and or take over local businesses. The mobster and his crew have allegedly been targeting businesses including pizza restaurants in an attempt to collect protection payments or force owners to sell for next to nothing. According to a Journal De Montreal report, he tried to extort thousands of dollars from La Fornarina restaurant. Instead of folding and paying the mob tax the restaurant owners went to the authorities and Del Balso is now reportedly the focus of an ongoing investigation.
Del Balso was arrested back in 2006 along with several other Rizzuto crime family mobsters in Project Colisée. He was released and sent back to prison because authorities feared he was a target in the ongoing Montreal Mafia war. And he was the victim of what was believed to be an attempted murder in May after he was once again released. A source involved in the case said “This is really a bum, this guy [Del Balso]. He was told to get away from Montreal if he wanted to live and the next thing that comes to our ears is that he is threatening Quebec restaurants. Frankly!”
“I think he did not understand that” far “it was much further than Quebec,” a source close to the Rizzuto’s reportedly said. So it doesn’t seem like he is currently operating under the flag of what remains of the Rizzuto clan. Could Francesco Del Balso be operating in Quebec City independently without the backing of either the Rizzuto’s or the Ndrangheta clans? Either way, it seems his time in the Old Capital area may be cut short if authorities have anything to say about it.
The bloody Montreal mafia war that decimated the once powerful Rizzuto family has seen a decrease in violence of late. It remains unclear if the rival factions have made the peace and agreed to some kind of truce or if this is just a temporary calm. Reports of the Sicilian based Rizzuto’s demise may have been a bit premature. New leader Stefano Sollecito has kept what’s left of the family in order and they remain a player within organized crime in Montreal. Times have definitely changed and it seems like the Calabrian mafia or Ndrangheta has now also established a strong presence.
