After months of relative peace within Montreal’s Mafia circles, one of its members was fatally shot in a restaurant in Rivière-des-Prairies Monday afternoon.
Two masked men entered a restaurant around 1 p.m. and shot the man several times. They fled and were still at large on Monday night.
Sources familiar with the investigation told QMI Agency that the victim, Tonino Callocchia, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Callocchia had survived an assassination attempt in February 2013, also at a restaurant in the Montreal area.
Several of Callochia’s associates have have been killed in recent years, including Joe Di Maulo, once a trusted confidant of the Rizzuto crime family.
Di Maulo was believed to have had a falling out with the Rizzutos and was gunned down in his driveway north of Montreal in November 2012.
Monday’s attack appears to have been well planned and focused on Callocchia as the target, sources tell QMI Agency.
Several members of his clan have been killed in recent years as the Rizzutos settled scores following the shooting deaths of boss Vito Rizzuto’s father, son and several top associates.
The don himself died of natural causes over the Christmas holidays last year.
Agencies/Canadajournal