Cosa Nostra News

One of the two alleged leaders of the Montreal Cosa Nostra entity was released from jail on Monday, February 19, after charges against them were dropped. Vito Rizzuto's son, Leonardo Leonardo Rizzuto, 48, and Stefano Sollecito were acquitted of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine when Quebec Superior Court Justice Eric Downs ruled that they'd been illegally wiretapped in a conference room at their lawyer’s office. So basically, the main evidence against the pair, a single conversation recorded in that conference room, was tossed, and prosecutors said they had no other evidence to prove the charges of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Leonardo, son of Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto (who died in 2013), had been detained since the arrests, while Sollecito--whose father, Rizzuto-loyalist Rocco Sollecito, was murdered in 2016--was granted bail in 2016 to undergo cancer treatment. Leonardo still faces charges of possession of a firearm and drugs, a...

An alleged Montreal Mafia member was shot to death last night. Vincenzo Spagnolo, 65, a Vito Rizzuto loyalist who served as a consigliere of sorts, was gunned down at his Laval home. The shooting appears to be linked to a "settling of accounts" within the Mafia, Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau told one newspaper . Montreal mobster Vincenzo Spagnolo was  shot to death. Laval Police were called to the house, on Antoine-Forestier Street after reports of gunfire had reached law enforcement.

Alexandra Mongeau, "Mom" Boucher's daughter, faces charges in Montreal mob case. Project Mastiff, a lengthy drug trafficking investigation that ensnared Montreal Mafia boss Leonardo Rizzuto and around 40 others, who were arrested last November, is slated to inch forward in the courtroom today, with the scheduled debut of a key anonymous witness. The witness sparked the investigation into alleged drug trafficking ties between the Montreal Cosa Nostra clan, the Hells Angels MC and various street gangs, the Montreal Gazette reported . Rizzuto was identified by law enforcement as one of two bosses of the Montreal Mafia family previously run by his father, Vito, who died in December 2013. Leonardo was  arrested on Nov. 19 as part of Projects Magot and Mastiff, a joint investigation into drug trafficking in the city. 

Leonardo Rizzuto was denied ball again, though a judge allowed it for a dying Stefano Sollecito . Alleged Montreal Mafia leader Stefano Sollecito was granted bail, the Montreal Gazette reported . Leonardo Rizzuto wasn't -- but then the son of deceased Montreal Cosa Nostra boss Vito Rizzuto isn't suffering what seems to be, in Stefano's case, terminal cancer. The reported reason for Sollecito's bail: the judge agreed "he cannot adequately be treated for the cancer he is suffering from inside a provincial detention centre."

Drug traffickers have nice houses. This one belongs to a turncoat.... He's clearly tied to the street gangs and apparently the MCs. He also dealt with a Mafia-linked group. But the big question is, does he have any dirt on the Rizzuto bosses arrested last November ? The turncoat headed up a narcotics trafficking network until his arrest last November when 200 police officers hauled away 48 as part of Projects Magot and Mastiff . One major revelation of this investigation was that the Cosa Nostra, the Hells Angels and major street gangs allegedly worked together to control drug trafficking in Montreal. The groups shared the profits of their drug trafficking operation.

SOURCE Liborio "Pancho" Cuntrera -- having returned from his Italian vacation -- is due to appear at the Montreal courthouse this afternoon, The Montreal Gazette just reported . Cuntrera, 47, of Laval, faces three charges related to Project Clemenza, an investigation into cocaine trafficking and smuggling. Cuntrera was in Italy when the RCMP was conducting arrests. "Pancho" was arrested yesterday, while in the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport. He was taken directly into custody the moment he stepped off the plan. His first court appearance is this afternoon (Monday, May 6, 2016.) Cuntrera was one of the six men who sat on the Montreal Mafia's ruling panel, which also included Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito, both arrested last November .

Rizzuto loyalist Marco Pizzi, 46, of Montreal North, was ar rested in the latest coordinated Montreal takedown. Last November, Montreal law enforcement busted up an alleged " unholy" alliance comprised of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Hells Angels and a number of street gangs. They followed that up with another raid, snagging 15 people following a probe into drug-smuggling. The focus was on a key member of the Montreal Mafia, Liborio "Pancho" Cuntrera of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, in which most members are linked by blood. The Italian press dubbed them the "The Rothschilds of the Mafia." (The Rothschild family business of financiers is considered the wealthiest in modern world history.) The Cuntrera-Caruana clan were a major component of the Cosa Nostra's 1980s-1990s drug trafficking operations, playing a major role in laundering illicit cash proceeds.

Raynald Desjardins in no hurry. Raynald Desjardins appears to have nothing left to lose, to paraphrase the Montreal Gazette. The 62-year-old former trusted lieutenant of the Rizzuto organization last week told a Quebec Superior Court judge that he is willing to wait for a period that could ultimately last longer than a year for his sentencing hearing. This follows Desjardins guilty plea to conspiracy for the November 2011 murder of former New York-based acting Bonanno crime family boss Salvatore Montagna . Desjardins, an influential organized crime figure who used to be a right-hand man to Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto , pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on July 6, 2015..

"Nino Brown" -- the victim -- survived several attempts since 2013. UPDATED : Montreal police are currently investigating what seems likely to be the latest attack on the Montreal Mafia crime family formerly run by Vito Rizzuto. The victim has been the target of several previous unsuccessful hits and one report seems to indicate the shootings may be over debts. This past Monday the wounded man, allegedly an MC member associated with the Rizzutos, was shot inside his Riviere des Prairies home. His name is Nino De Bartolomeis, 44, (he is also known as Nino Brown). Officially, his identity remains unconfirmed. The report seems to indicate he may have had something to do with the launching last year of Projects Magot and Mastiff , which led to the arrests of several members of a drug-trafficking triumvirurate that involved the Montreal Mafia, Hells Angels MC and street gangs. Among those arrested and held without bail are Leonardo Rizzuto, Vito Rizzuto’s son and a pr...

Leonardo Rizzuto Leonardo Rizzuto, son of deceased Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, and Stefano Sollecito, who together helmed the powerful Canadian Cosa Nostra clan, will not be released on bail , a Quebec court ruled last Friday, noting that releasing them risked undermining the justice system and also jeopardized public safety. The Rizzuto organization is currently engaged in a war against elements of the Ndrangheta and former members of the Rizzuto clan who turned while Vito was imprisoned. Only last week, one of the Rizzuto family's key members was whacked  -- which certainly wouldn't have helped the Cosa Nostra co-bosses in their effort to obtain release on bail. The ruling must be particularly difficult for the 48-year-old Sollecito — Vito Rizzuto’s former lieutenant — who had to appear before the Quebec judge via video conferencing. He suffers from cancer and was making his appearance from another location, a detention center. "Sollecito is battling c...

Lorenzo Giordano was gunned down this past Tuesday. A member of the Montreal Mafia formerly headed by deceased mob boss Vito Rizzuto was murdered this week -- indicating the Rizzuto clan may be on the defensive following the loss of its historic boss and more recently, a takedown that targeted the group's new hierarchy. Lorenzo Giordano, 52, was gunned down in a Laval parking lot Tuesday morning and died in the hospital from his injuries, a Montreal Gazette source confirmed . The Sûreté du Québec, which wouldn't confirm the victim's name, said he'd been shot "at least once" in Carrefour Multisports's parking lot early Tuesday morning. Due to the alleged ties to organized crime, the Sûreté du Québec took over the case from the Laval police department, the Gazette reported.

Leonardo Rizzuto UPDATED:  Nine new criminal charges were filed against Leonardo Rizzuto today at the Montreal courthouse, right before his bail hearing was to commence. Rizzuto was identified by law enforcement as one of two bosses of the Montreal Mafia family previously run by his father, Vito, who died in December 2013. Leonardo was arrested on Nov. 19 as part of Projects Magot and Mastiff, a joint investigation into drug trafficking in the city. Rizzuto was charged with drug trafficking and gangsterism, which was introduced into Canada's Criminal Code in 1997 as a way to apply longer sentences against organized crime members. Specifically it was designed following the bloody street battles between the Hells Angels and The Rock Machine MCs for dominance over Quebec.

Vito Rizzuto's son Leonardo and Stefano Sollecito were identified as the two heads of the Montreal Cosa Nostra. The murder plot of Vito Rizzuto's chief enemy, Raynald Desjardins, set in motion today's series of predawn raids in Quebec, with police sweeping up 48, including members of the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels. Arrested were Rizzuto's son, an attorney reportedly not involved in organized crime (Leonardo Rizzuto, 46, took over after his father's death, police today claimed), and the daughter of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, a legendary former president of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. Boucher himself was arrested  in his jail cell where he's serving multiple life sentences for killing two prison guards.