Cosa Nostra News

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.

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."

Undated photo of Desjardins. The RCMP launched a 16-month surveillance operation against Raynald Desjardins and seven associates one day after the murder of Salvatore Montagna, the former Bonanno crime family street boss. "The Iron Worker" had been shot three times, allegedly by elderly gangster Jack Simpson with whom Montagna was meeting, and died on a snowswept river bank outside Montreal. At the time of the murder, Desjardins was warmly ensconced in his alibi, eating breakfast with his daughter.

"Chit" wants out of prison -- he's certain that no assassins are going to kill him. The parole board decided to agree with him. One of the last surviving members of an exclusive group of Rizzuto loyalists -- that very same group that someone seems to be systematically killing , apparently thinks he has nothing to fear but fear itself -- and wants out of prison posthaste. Francesco "Chit" Del Balso, 46, wrote to the Parole Board of Canada last week, informing them that "he feels his life is not in danger even though his close friend, and fellow leader in the Rizzuto organization, Lorenzo "Skunk" Giordano, 52, was fatally shot in Laval on March 1," the National Post reported . ( It was recently revealed that Giordano's wife was sitting in the car next to him when he was shot to death .) Giordano and Del Balso both recently reached their statutory release dates following their Project Colisée prison time. (Project Colisée, a...

Rocco Sollecito was formerly part of Vito Rizzuto's inner circle. Montreal Mafia Rizzuto loyalist Rocco Sollecito, seen above, was killed last Friday in a daring daytime shooting near Montreal's Laval police headquarters. The suspected shooter, based on police evidence, was described as in his 30s and wearing black clothes . He apparently waited at a bus stop beside a stop sign. 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 alone in the SUV during the attack and was declared dead at the hospital.

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.