Extradition of Vito Rizzuto might 'mess up' underworld

Everything's going to be fragmented in Montreal, investigator says

Paul Cherry – The Gazzette

Potential power grabs and internal conflict might be in the cards if the man alleged to be the godfather of the Montreal Mafia is extradited to the United States to face murder charges, a police investigator says.

Vito Rizzuto, 57, is in custody and awaiting an extradition hearing that could take him to New York, where he faces a racketeering case alleging he helped to murder three members of the Bonanno crime family in 1981.

Rizzuto is openly described by Ottawa as the head of a widespread organization that has tentacles in illegal gambling in Ontario and the sale of illicit drugs in Quebec. Severing the head of such an organization would presumably create a void.

"Things are going to be pretty messed up in Montreal or overall in Canada, anyway. Everything is going to be fragmented," said the police investigator, who spoke on condition his name not be used. "Any time someone that high up gets taken down, you're going to have conflicts, internal conflicts. Other people are going to try to take over."

But the same investigator added he's convinced that Rizzuto's father, Nicola (Nick) Rizzuto, who is about to turn 80, has always been the actual head of the organization.

"A lot of the major decisions go through him," the investigator said of the elder Rizzuto, who enjoys driving his Jaguar and lives next to his son on Antoine Berthelet Ave. in the north end of the city.

"He still calls the shots."

A court document unsealed Tuesday, when Vito Rizzuto appeared in court as his extradition process began, indicates he defers to his father.

A former mobster, who has agreed to testify against the Bonanno family in New York, told authorities that in 1999 he was ordered to travel to Montreal to appoint Vito Rizzuto "captain of the Canadian/Montreal crew of the Bonanno family."

This came after Gerlando Sciascia, a Montrealer and close associate of the Rizzuto family, was shot dead in New York.

"Rizzuto requested that his father, a soldier in the Bonanno family, instead be appointed the captain as a sign of respect."

The witness cited in the document said that so far as he knows, the issue was not resolved.

Unlike his son Vito, who has twice been acquitted in major drug trials, Nick Rizzuto has spent time behind bars in the past two decades.

He was arrested in February 1988 in Venezuela and spent five years in prison for cocaine possession and related offences. In 1994, Rizzuto associate Domenic Tozzi told an undercover officer he delivered $800,000 to Venezuela to be used as a bribe to get the then ailing 69-year-old out of jail.

Tozzi was under investigation at the time and received a 12-year sentence for helping to launder $27 million for three different Mafia clans.

The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, a national agency that monitors trends in crime, describes the Mafia as complex, tight-knit and powerful.

"Since a power shift from the Calabrian Mafia in the 1970s, the Sicilian Mafia have built their organizations on tight family bonds while increasing their

capacity to carry out sophist-icated operations that can extend country-wide," the agency's most recent annual report said.

"Generally, the capabilities of (the Mafia) in Canada are highly sophisticated. They include the undertaking of numerous criminal enterprises and the accompanying use of legitimate businesses that help to facilitate their criminal activities."

The Montreal investigator described some of Rizzuto's known underlings as "mere strongmen" who lack the connections, intelligence and charisma to lead such a complex organization.

The investigator also said that another potential side effect of Rizzuto's arrest could be an increase in mobsters becoming police informants.

"Whenever you take down a person like Vito Rizzuto, you are going to have more and more informants popping up. You'll see a lot of crimes being solved that were committed as far back as the '70s," the investigator predicted. "Once you take (leaders) away, the reign of fear is gone and people will speak up."

Antonio Nicaso - author of several books on the Mafia, including Bloodlines: The Rise and Fall of the Mafia's Royal Family - said he doesn't think the elder Rizzuto is running things.

"I think he plays the role of an adviser, but I think he is too old to run things," Nicaso said, adding he believes the Mafia in Canada became more independent of its U.S. allies under Vito Rizzuto's alleged stewardship.

"In my opinion, during the '80s and mostly in the '90s, Rizzuto was the man who drove the Montreal Mafia in a new direction. He created distance from the Americans," Nicaso said.

"My opinion is that if he is convicted, it will be very difficult to replace Vito Rizzuto. It doesn't mean that the organization will be in disarray without Vito. They will manage to go on, but not with the same connections.

"At this point, knowledge that we have from intelligence reports, there is no other person who is as capable or at the same level as Vito Rizzuto at present," Nicaso said.

"Rizzuto is a cultivated man, charismatic, fluent in four languages. I think it will be difficult to find another Vito Rizzuto in Canada. But, of course, everything is possible. In the Mafia in Italy, they use an old saying: 'The pope has died, let's welcome another.' "

pcherry@thegazette.canwest.com – Jan. 22, 2004