Francesco Del Balso a ranking member of the Rizzuto crime family has gained his freedom after more than nine years in prison and nine more months in a halfway house.
The 46-year-old mobster was allowed to return home but is still under close watch being supervised electronically via a GPS bracelet. He was sent to the halfway house back in May of last year living under these extremely strict conditions with his supervisors knowing his location at all times. Del Balso had to agree to continue these strict surveillance measures set forth by the Parole Board of Canada in their decision according to the report. He served as a lieutenant under former interim Montreal mafia leader Francesco Arcadi and was the right hand man of aspiring leader Lorenzo Giordano. He was one of six Rizzuto family leaders arrested in Operation Colosseum and was sentenced to 11 years behind bars.
“Francesco Del Balso”
Only two of those six Rizzuto family leaders are still alive in Del Balso and Arcadi who were both behind bars during much of the Montreal mafia war. He and Arcadi were released for a short time but the murders of key Rizzuto family mobsters Giordano and Rocco Sollecito led corrections authorities to put them back in prison for their own safety. The Parole Board of Canada informed Del Balso that he was likely one of the next to be on the execution list of Montreal mafia members. He claimed he was certain his life would not be in danger on the streets but he could not supply the PBC with where he was getting this information.
With the more recent murders of key members like Giordano and Sollecito and the former interim mafia leaders Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto under indictment, the Rizzuto family remains decimated. With the ongoing Montreal mafia war yet to be resolved both Del Balso and Arcadi could very well be targeted by Rizzuto family enemies.
