A man in his 70s widely believed to be second-in-command of the Montreal mafia was shot dead in front of his home late Sunday, police said Monday.
The assassination of Joseph “Joe” Di Maulo at around 9 pm local time in Blainville, Quebec is the latest killing in an underworld power struggle that has gutted Montreal’s once powerful Rizzuto crime family.
It comes just after reputed godfather Vito Rizzuto returned to Canada, after serving a decade in a US prison for his role in the 1981 murders of three members of New York’s Bonanno crime family.
Police said it appeared that the gunman hid behind bushes waiting for Di Maulo outside his house.
Di Maulo is the brother-in-law of Rizzuto associate Raynald Desjardins who was charged with four others last year with the murder of Salvatore Montagna, who was chased by gunmen from his house. Police pulled his body from a river.
Montagna’s arrival from New York, where he had been the youngest boss of the now depleted Bonano crime family, had led to much speculation as it coincided with the murders of Rizzuto’s father and son as well as the disappearance and presumed death of his brother-in-law Paolo Renda.
Montreal mafioso gunned down
