A year after his prison release Vito Rizzuto is back on top of the mafia
A year after Vito Rizzuto returned home from a U.S. prison stint, the crime boss has already re-taken the reins of the Mafia, experts tell QMI Agency.
It's a feat few would have thought possible after Rizzuto's father, son and several top associates were murdered in a three-year bloodbath by mysterious rivals.
Mafia expert Pierre de Champlain tells QMI that Vito Rizzuto has been able to re-assert his authority and bring "relative peace between the various factions" in the underworld.
He apparently returned to power with a mix of the olive branch and the gun. His son, Nick Jr., was shot and killed in December 2009 and his father Nicolo was gunned down less than a year later, prompting revenge killings that began as soon as Vito came back to Canada.
The first to fall was former associate Joe Di Maulo, who was felled by two bullets to the head a month after Vito's return.
De Champlain says the settling of accounts was made possible by "associates who were loyal during (Rizzuto's) absence."
Underworld expert Antonio Nicaso says the powerful Ontario Calabrian mob, while rivals of the Sicilians, might be willing to settle for a truce.
And while Rizzuto is 67 years old and recently sold his luxury home in Montreal, news reports suggest he's not yet ready to hang up his hat.
The New York Post, citing American investigators, reported last year that Rizzuto ordered the hit of rival mobster Salvatore Montagna from behind bars in 2011.
Citing a "jailhouse source," the Post said Rizzuto told cellmates that "I don't just want to be godfather of Canada. I want to be godfather of the world."
Rizzuto also scored a victory of sorts against the establishment when officials at the Charbonneau commission into organized crime decided against ordering him to take the stand.
It's believed Rizzuto would have invoked omerta, the Mafia code of silence, had prosecutors grilled him about his business dealings with Sicilian-owned construction firms and corrupt bureaucrats.
But revelations about cash bribes and collusion with construction firms might do as much damage to Rizzuto's empire as a shower of bullets.
Endless revelations at the commission, combined with multiple police investigations, have put a spotlight on the black market that had fattened the Rizzuto family's pockets for 30 years.
http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/10/07/vito-rizzuto-back-on-top-experts
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