Quebec Police Probing New Leads In 2016 Gangland Hit
Quebec police are seeking help from the public identifying two individuals seen fleeing the scene of a 2016 gangland hit involving a confidant of one-time Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.
Police say the two were on a black motorcycle that was seen after Rocco Sollecito was gunned down, and they have posted several images on their website in hopes of identifying them.
Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto placed Rocco and five others on a ruling panel to oversee the Montreal Mafia while he was away serving time in an American prison after former Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino flipped and testified, implicating Rizzuto in a 1981 triple-slaying.
Members of the panel were quickly swept off the streets in November 2006. The six men were in fact the "main players arrested" as part of Project Colisée, a Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation that targeted the Rizzuto organization's heart.
All six members of the ruling panel eventually pleaded guilty -- and for their various charges, they were sentenced to prison for various lengths of time.
Project Colisée, coupled with Rizzuto’s absence, left the Montreal Mafia in such a weakened state, Rizzuto dissidents and Ndrangheta elements from Ontario pounced.
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| Rocco Sollecito |
Police say the two were on a black motorcycle that was seen after Rocco Sollecito was gunned down, and they have posted several images on their website in hopes of identifying them.
This seems to diverge from information released in 2016, around the time Sollecito was killed. Then, police identified the suspected shooter as in his 30s and wearing black clothes. Also information shared with the media then suggested the gunman had waited at a bus stop beside a stop sign when at around 8:30 am, he fired several shots through the passenger-side window of Sollecito's white BMW SUV as it halted at the stop sign.
Sollecito was killed in a brazen daylight shooting in Laval on May 26, 2016. Laval police were called to the scene about gunshots on St-Elzéar Boulevard.
Anyone with information is asked to meet police at the command post at 3535 Jean-Noël-Lavoie-Ouest (Highway 440) in Laval.
Police say tipsters can also call their hotline at 1-800-659-4264.
Sollecito was alone in the SUV during the attack. He was declared dead at the hospital.
Sollecito was formerly part of Vito Rizzuto's inner circle.
It also was suggested then that the shooter(s) appeared to know Sollecito’s morning routine.
Investigators also were seeking to find the driver of a vehicle that appeared to slow down beside Sollecito's SUV, then sped onward, allegedly in the same direction as the shooter.
Investigators also were seeking to find the driver of a vehicle that appeared to slow down beside Sollecito's SUV, then sped onward, allegedly in the same direction as the shooter.
Anyone with information is asked to meet police at the command post at 3535 Jean-Noël-Lavoie-Ouest (Highway 440) in Laval.
Police say tipsters can also call their hotline at 1-800-659-4264.
Sollecito was alone in the SUV during the attack. He was declared dead at the hospital.
Sollecito was formerly part of Vito Rizzuto's inner circle.
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| SUV in which Rocco Sollecito was gunned down. |
Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto placed Rocco and five others on a ruling panel to oversee the Montreal Mafia while he was away serving time in an American prison after former Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino flipped and testified, implicating Rizzuto in a 1981 triple-slaying.
Members of the panel were quickly swept off the streets in November 2006. The six men were in fact the "main players arrested" as part of Project Colisée, a Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation that targeted the Rizzuto organization's heart.
All six members of the ruling panel eventually pleaded guilty -- and for their various charges, they were sentenced to prison for various lengths of time.
Project Colisée, coupled with Rizzuto’s absence, left the Montreal Mafia in such a weakened state, Rizzuto dissidents and Ndrangheta elements from Ontario pounced.
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