Rizzuto coming back
Mafia don returning to Canada today as U.S. prison term ends
MONTREAL— Canadian Mafia kingpin Vito Rizzuto will be back on Canadian soil Friday after serving a fiveyear prison sentence in the United States, American immigration officials say.
The head of the Montreal Mafia clan, who was convicted of conspiracy and racketeering related to a 1981 triple murder, is expected to return to Montreal or Toronto, though both Canadian and U.S. authorities are refusing to reveal any details.
“I know, but I’m not going to say,” said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The details are kept under wraps for security reasons, he added.
Last Saturday, the Star reported that police were hearing from their underworld sources that Rizzuto might be considering the GTA as his new home base.
“Vito has solid alliances in Ontario. His support is more discreet but stronger than in Montreal,” one senior Quebec police official told a team from the Star and the Radio- Canada program “Enquête” that is investigating the underworld. Rizzuto’s home in northeast Montreal has long been up for sale. He has family in the GTA and in the early 2000s he invested in a restaurant and nightclub, a stock trading company and a garbage disposal firm. He was a frequent visitor to the Woodbridge area. At the Canadian end, Rizzuto’s return to this country is being handled by the Canadian consulate in co-operation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Though he has spent years off the streets that he once ruled with impunity, Rizzuto’s name has rarely been more present in Quebec’s headlines. A provincial inquiry looking into corruption in the construction industry has unveiled the profits the Rizzuto clan pocketed by rigging the bids on municipal infrastructure projects in Montreal, demanding a 2.5-per-cent payment on contracts for which companies colluded to decide who would submit the lowest bid and win the contract. Rizzuto has been shown in recent weeks on police surveillance videos stuffing wads of cash into his socks at his former headquarters in Montreal, and the public has heard tales of how he mediated disputes between construction firms hoping to get rich by manipulating govern- ment projects. But much has changed in the years that he has been in jail. Rizzuto’s father, Nicolo, and his son, Nick Jr., have been killed in suspected gangland hits. Many of his confidants were also arrested and driven out of business in an RCMP investigation into drug trafficking that wrapped up in 2006. Rizzuto’s father-in-law, Antonio Cammalleri of Woodbridge, died last week of natural causes in Montreal at 93. This had led to police speculation that Rizzuto’s first public appearance will be at the funeral, either in Woodbridge or Montreal. The Rizzuto family, which runs an upscale funeral home in Montreal, hasn’t yet announced details of the funeral. Cammalleri was convicted in absentia in Italy of murdering leftist politician Giuseppe Spagnolo in 1955 in Sicily. Despite the conviction, he lived out his life in York Region. Police sources familiar with Rizzuto said that they believed he would make a point of making a public appearance at the funeral and visitation. Police security would be high, which would make it extremely difficult for anyone to try to attack Rizzuto at the service, a police officer said.