Montreal godfather spotted at old stomping grounds
Reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto has been spotted in Montreal after his return to Canada nearly two weeks ago from the United States, sources say.
Police in Montreal have been supplied with information that Rizzuto, 66, returned to Montreal last weekend and recently attended a weekday appointment in Saint-Léonard this week. A police source told The Gazette the information appears to be "very credible." The sources said it is still unclear whether Rizzuto has decided to reside again in the city he called home since his family arrived in Canada, from Italy, in 1954.
Rizzuto still owns a luxury home on Antoine Berthelet Ave. in northern Montreal even though it has been up for sale for months. The city had been the base of the Rizzuto organization for decades, while Rizzuto allegedly operated as the head of the Mafia in Montreal until he was arrested in 2004 and extradited, in 2006, to the U.S. where he was charged in a racketeering case involving the 1981 murders of three mafia captains in Brooklyn, N.Y.
He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced, in May 2007, to a 10-year prison term. The sentence expired earlier this month and Rizzuto was automatically turned over to U.S. immigration and was escorted on a flight back to Canada on Oct. 5. His deportation had been prepared weeks before his release. The flight landed in Toronto and Rizzuto has apparently lain low since. A few recent media reports have quoted police sources as saying that it appeared Rizzuto remained in Toronto after arriving there. One report, published by the Journal de Montréal last week, cited police sources as saying Rizzuto met with "representatives from New York Mafia families" in the days after he arrived in Toronto.
During the years that Rizzuto was incarcerated in the U.S., the criminal organization that bore his family's name was weakened significantly by a major police investigation, murders and kidnappings. His eldest son, Nick "The Ritz", was killed in December 2009. A few months later his brother-in-law, Paolo Renda, was apparently kidnapped, near Antoine Berthelet Ave., and Rizzuto's octogenarian father, Nicolo "Zio Cola", was murdered in November 2010.
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