Leonardo Rizzuto and Raynald Desjardins were arrested in possession of pistols.
It was the surprising discovery that the police made during Operation Magot, which targeted the sons of sponsor defender Vito Rizzuto to share the drug market in Montreal, “Le Journal”.
Tension was high in the mafia at the time of this raid, three years ago.
Several of his tenors, including Leonardo Rizzuto and former boss Stefano Sollecito, had already been warned by the police that their heads were priced by rivals.
In the kitchen
On November 19, 2015, the Regional Joint Organized Crime Squad apprehended Rizzuto at his luxurious residence in Laval, as well as conducting a search.
In a kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator, the police found two semi-automatic pistols: a .40 caliber Walther P99 and a 6.35 Browning pistol.
At least one of these prohibited weapons was loaded. The police also seized ammunition, about forty bullets.
The serial numbers of the guns had been made up or removed, as is the case with most firearms circulating in the underworld, to prevent the police from finding their source.
Imported from the United States
Investigators from the Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Montréal and Laval police departments involved in this operation nevertheless managed to find the source by other means.
It is a clandestine supplier from the United States where several strains of organized crime in Quebec have been illegally supplied, according to our information.
As evidence, weapons seized in 2011 at the home of the Caid Desjardins and two of his acolytes during the investigation of the murder of the aspiring sponsor Salvatore Montagna have also been linked to the same American arms dealer, according to our sources.
Hidden in a couch
Desjardins was at the head of a group that was trying to take control of the Montreal mafia at the expense of the Rizzuto clan.
His loaded pistol, whose serial number had been erased by grinding, was hidden inside the lining of a couch in his living room. Desjardins is currently serving a 14-year sentence.
Leonardo Rizzuto – a 49-year-old lawyer practicing at the same office as Loris Cavaliere, sentenced to 34 months for gangsterism and expunged by the Law Society after Operation Magot – will stand trial for possession of prohibited weapons and drugs. November 21, before a judge of the Court of Quebec.
Cocaine in a jacket
The police officers who arrested him also seized five grams of cocaine in bags hidden in the bottom of a Hugo Boss jacket pocket.
They had also found nearly $ 50,000 in his home, including $ 3,000 wrapped in a nylon stocking.
Rizzuto spent 26 months in pre-trial detention before being released from charges of gangsterism and conspiracy against him in this operation.
In February, a judge ruled that he had been illegally wiretapped by police officers who had recorded him unwittingly in his colleague Cavaliere’s office.
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