Now Two Shot in Montreal; Both Rizzuto Renegades

Game back on: It seems Vito is not finished yet.

Earlier today we reported about the shooting death of Vincenzo Scuderi, a man with known ties to the Montreal mob. Since then, another mobster has been shot repeatedly, though it seems he will survive the attempt -- and authorities are revealing that this indeed looks like the continuation of the mob war that had been blazing up Montreal since Vito Rizzuto returned home from prison to take care of business. The article below notes: "They chose to side against the Rizzuto organization while its alleged leader, Vito Rizzuto, was imprisoned in the U.S."

From Montrealgazette.com: The Sûreté du Québec has taken over a probe into a Friday-morning shooting along a Laval restaurant strip just east of Highway 15.

A man was hit by gunfire in the parking lot between two restaurants, about 10:10 a.m.

It appears the man managed to make his way inside to one of them — the Youlios Restaurant at 2033 St. Martin Blvd. W., between Highway 15 and Le Corbusier Blvd. — looking for help.

Joseph Di Maulo, an influential Mafioso, was one of the

key murders in Rizzuto's war against a renegade faction.

Witnesses told police they heard several gunshots.

Officers found casings on the ground.

The SQ has now been handed the case, Laval Sgt. Fred Jean said shortly after noon, in line with a municipal policy that transfers cases involving organized crime to the provincial force.

Jean said the victim received multiple shots to the torso. He was transported to hospital and was conscious and speaking at that time. No further update on the victim’s medical condition was immediately available.

A police source confirmed to The Gazette the man who was shot is Tonino Callocchia, a 51-year-old man with known ties to the Mafia in the past. The source said what Callocchia shares in common with some of the other recent victims in mob-related shootings — in what appears to be a complicated and multi-faceted conflict among different groups tied to the Mafia in Montreal — is that they chose to side against the Rizzuto organization while its alleged leader, Vito Rizzuto, was imprisoned in the U.S. The source said the same could be said for Vincenzo Scuderi, a man who was killed in St. Léonard on Thursday evening. While Scuderi does not have a criminal record in Quebec, he was believed to have operated as a loan shark in Montreal. The source said the Scuderi slaying appears to have been carried out by a professional hit man.



Rizzuto returned to Montreal in October after having served most of his 10-year prison sentence for his role in the 1981 murders of three Mafia captains in New York. The police source said what is happening now in the Montreal area is “a complete mess” with different groups within the Mafia clashing. He cautioned some of the groups are believed to be “well armed and waiting for anybody to make a wrong move.”

In 2002, Tonino Callocchia was described, in a Parole Board of Canada decision, as “an active member of the Italian Mafia.” This was while he was serving a combined 21-year sentence that had begun in 1987 for a series of drug trafficking convictions, possessing a firearm and running a bawdy house. The sentence grew as Callocchia violated his parole several times after the initial sentence.

The latter part of the lengthy aggregate sentence was for Callocchia’s role in a 1994 cocaine-trafficking conspiracy involving Vincenzo Di Maulo, the brother of Joseph Di Maulo, an influential Mafioso who was killed outside his home in Blainville in November, another person who apparently decided to side against the Rizzuto organization while it was at its weakest point. Callocchia’s most recent arrest, in 1994, was part of a large roundup of dozens of people tied to the Mafia who, at the time, operated in peace under the leadership of the Rizzuto organization.

Callocchia was granted full parole in 2002 after having taken part in community projects in an effort to convince authorities he was leaving organized crime. But a police source told The Gazette that doesn’t appear to have been the case in recent years and that Callocchia “decided to side against (the Rizzuto organization)” when people tied to the mob were apparently forced to choose sides around 2010 and 2011.

At the time of his parole hearing, in 2002, the parole board members were impressed by how Callocchia had carried himself and he was described as “intelligent and structured.” He had assured the board he would be financially stable, despite having spent more than a decade behind bars, because of an inheritance as well as an income from real estate investments one of his parents had made.

According to the Quebec business registry, Callocchia is the owner of a construction company, based in Laval, specializing in residential projects. According to media reports in 2008, the company was fined by the city of Laval and was pursued in civil court by several parties for a series of defects found on homes built in Laval’s Vimont district.