Rizzuto clan allegedly targeted in shooting outside Montreal jail

Members of the Rizzuto organized crime family were allegedly targeted in a shooting near the outdoor courtyard of a Montreal jail over the weekend, a source confirmed to CTV News.

The shooting happened at around 2 p.m. Saturday outside the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre in Montreal’s east end. Montreal police officers searched a wooded area near the jail and found an AR-15 rifle, shell casings, and photos of Leonardo Rizzuto, the alleged head of the Montreal Mafia, and his clan, who are all awaiting trial.

Montreal police say no one was injured in the shooting and that the investigation is still ongoing. No arrests have been made.

Shortly after the shooting, police also found a burned vehicle near Gouin Boulevard West and Trefflé-Berthiaume Street, roughly four kilometres from where the shots were heard.

Police are probing whether the vehicle and the shooting are connected.

The motive for the shooting outside the jail, first reported by Radio-Canada, remains unclear. Media reports say police are looking at more than one theory, including the possibility that the gunfire and items left behind may have been staged to make it appear that the organized crime members’ safety is threatened at the jail. The alleged targets of the shooting were reportedly moved to Montreal’s Bordeaux jail Sunday evening.

Rizzuto’s lawyer declined to comment on the incident when reached Monday afternoon.

Correctional service officers sound alarm

The shooting at the jail has also sparked concern from the union representing correctional service officers in Quebec.

The Syndicat des agents de la paix en services correctionnels du Québec–CSN called the shooting “unprecedented” and says it puts the safety of their members, and the public at large, in jeopardy.

“The current increase in police raids in Quebec has a direct impact on the prison population, bringing constant instability within the walls due to the war between criminal gangs,” said Mathieu Lavoie, the union’s national president, in a statement on Monday.

“It is clear that the increase in the number of high-level criminals in detention is creating a climate of explosive tension in the prison system.”

The union complained that it does not get the same recognition as other peace officers and that, in the face of $40 million in cuts to the Ministry of Public Security, “we do not see how we can continue to deal with these uncontrollable tensions,” Lavoie added.

CTV News has reached out to the ministry for comment.

Rizzuto, 56, the youngest son of the late reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, was among 11 people arrested June 12 in a major organized crime sweep called Project Alliance, a joint operation between the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and Montreal police.

Rizzuto and the alleged co-leader of the crime family, Stefano Sollecito, 57, along with five other co-accused, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lorenzo Lopresti, according to court records. Lopresti, 40, was shot dead while on his balcony on Oct. 24, 2011.

Both men were also charged with conspiring to murder several men, including Lopresti, Giuseppe Renda, Moreno Gallo, Antonio Vanello, Raynald Desjardins, Joseph DiMaulo, Salvatore Montagna, and Antonio Pietrantonio, between 2011 and 2019.

Their case is still before the court.

As the alleged head of the Montreal Mafia, not even jail walls can protect someone like Rizzuto, according to Julian Sher, an investigative journalist who has written extensively on Montreal organized crime.

“He has to know he’s living on borrowed time, one way or the other,” Sher said in an interview on Monday.

“Leonardo Rizzuto has to know his days are numbered, one way or the other, and he is going to face the toughest crime case that he or his family have ever faced. And we’ll have to see what happens. But he can’t be a very happy man these days.”