Quebec bar suspends law licence of alleged Mafia leader Leonardo Rizzuto

Leonardo Rizzuto leaves a Montreal courthouse Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.

MONTREAL — MONTREAL — Quebec’s bar association has suspended the lawyer’s licence of Leonardo Rizzuto, who was one of 11 people arrested last month in a police operation targeting organized crime.

The Barreau du Québec announced this week that it had provisionally suspended Rizzuto’s licence as of July 2.

The 56-year-old is the son of the late crime boss Vito Rizzuto and the presumed head of one of Canada’s most notorious crime families.

He and six other men have been charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of alleged Montreal Mafia member Lorenzo Lopresti.

The joint police operation last month by Montreal and Quebec provincial police led to the arrest of 11 men between 27 and 57 years old, who police allege are associated with the Mafia, the Hells Angels and street gangs.

The suspects allegedly participated in several murders and attempted murders between 2011 and 2021.

The suspension said Rizzuto, who obtained his licence in 1999, had practised law in Montreal and Laval.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2025.