Alleged Montreal mafia leader Leonardo Rizzuto shot in Laval
Posted March 16, 2023 10:11 am.
Alleged mafioso Leonardo Rizzuto survived an attempted murder by firearm Wednesday afternoon in Laval.
The 53-year-old was shot in the leg while inside a vehicle.
Around 4:40 p.m., he was driving a black Mercedes on Highway 440, near Highway 13 in Laval, when someone from another moving vehicle shot at his car at least six times. He was injured in the leg but his life is not in danger.
Leonardo Rizzuto is the youngest son of the late Vito Rizzuto, the former godfather of the Sicilian mafia in Montreal.
The patriarch of the family, Nicolo Rizzuto, was shot dead in his Montreal home in 2010.
His son Vito, the mafia godfather, died of cancer a few years later, in December 2013, after a 10-year prison stay in the U.S. that ended in 2012.
A new leader on the rise
Since the deaths of his father and brother, their lawyer is suspected of having become one of the leaders of the Rizzuto clan, according to a report by the Criminal Intelligence Service of Quebec.
The same report states that the Rizzuto clan appears to be on the rise again as a powerful criminal group.
Vito’s son and Leonardo Rizzuto’s brother, Nicolo Rizzuto Jr, was killed in 2009. His alleged murderer, Ducarme Joseph, was killed in 2014.
Leonardo Rizzuto was arrested and charged with gangsterism, illegal possession of a weapon and drug possession in 2015, but was acquitted after three years of court proceedings, because evidence gathered by the police through wiretapping was inadmissible in court.
The investigation has now been transferred to the Sûreté du Québec because the shooting took place on a provincial highway, which is the SQ’s jurisdiction.
