Phone Ties Rizzuto to $1B Bonanno-Linked Drug Dealing Ring

Rizzuto after his arrest for helping Joe Massino whack three
renegade Bonanno capos back in the 1980s.
Vito Rizzuto apparently has been tied to the billion-dollar drug ring involving a Bonanno family member here in New York.

According to a story by the National Post, the Montreal mob boss's "personal" phone number was "found saved in the telephone" belonging to a high-level member of the Canadian-based operation.

It is not clear what, if any, action law enforcement will take based on this intelligence as regards Rizzuto. It is clear that both U.S. and Canadian officials are aware of the mob war being fought in the streets of Montreal, which has been ascribed to Rizzuto's efforts to consolidate his power base and take revenge on those who turned against him while he was serving a sentence in the U.S. for helping the Bonanno crime family take out three renegade capos decades ago.

Canadian drug kingpin Jimmy “Cosmo” Cournoyer, awaiting trial in Brooklyn federal court, is charged as being the brains behind a “vast international drug-trafficking enterprise that has been in existence for more than a decade,’’ prosecutor Steven Tiscione wrote in recent court papers, as reported by the New York Post.

The phone in which Rizzuto's digits were saved belonged to a man described as "Cournoyer’s manager for cocaine operations on the West Coast."

Published reports have identified reputed Bonanno crime-family associate John “Big Man” Venizelos as "one of Cournoyer’s biggest customers in New York City..." Venizelos is currently out on bail in the case, the New York Post reported.

"[Cournoyer's] pot supply... was transported in motor homes and trucks across Canada with the help of the Hells Angels, officials said. The motorcycle gang and the Montreal mob then smuggled the pot from Quebec into upstate New York, authorities said. Trucks delivered it to a warehouse in Brooklyn, sources said," according to the Post.

"Millions of dollars generated by the marijuana sales were eventually used to buy cocaine from Joaquin Guzmán Loera, the leader of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel — with the sale of the coke further financing the marijuana operation in Canada, feds say."


The drug alliance between "Big Man" Venizelos and “Cosmo” Cournoyer included the use of a $2 million “hit” fund – "so they could quickly hire henchmen to murder snitches, Brooklyn feds said today," an article in the New York Post reported.

Venizelos at Brooklyn Federal Court.
As the National Post reports: “...Canadian law enforcement seized a telephone from [a high-level member of the drug ring] that contained contact numbers for a number of prominent members of the Montreal Mafia – including Vito Rizzuto, the boss of the Rizzuto crime family, alternatively referred to as ‘The Sixth Family.’

“Members of the Cournoyer enterprise had direct contact with the highest levels of Mafia leadership."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiscione wrote in court papers: “Multiple witnesses will testify that Cournoyer was backed by the Hells Angels and the Montreal Mafia [specifically, the Rizzuto Crime Family] — two of the most violent organized crime groups in Canada.”

“The Rizzutos have strong historic ties to New York’s Bonanno crime family — the same crime family of which Venizelos is an associate. Indeed, Vito Rizzuto was released only a few months ago from a U.S. prison, where he was serving a sentence for his involvement in a triple-murder committed at the direction of the Bonanno family ruling panel,” Tiscione said.

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