Bonanno Crime Family - Allied Criminal Organization

Allied Criminal Organization

• The Bonannos and the Canadian faction - In the mid 1950s, Carmine Galante established two groups to control the illegal rackets in Montreal, Canada. The Sicilian group was led by Luigi Greco and the Calabrian group was led by Vic Cotroni. The Montreal groups became part of the Bonanno crime family having made members in each group. Joseph Bonanno promoted Vic Controni to become the boss (capo) of both Montreal groups. In 1964, Sicilian group leader Pasquale Cuntrera was arrested and Nicolo "Nick" Rizzuto took over the group starting a war in 1973. The Sicilians killed the Controni-Calabrian group underboss Paolo Violi and others. With the death of Vic Controni in 1984, the Rizzuto crime family became the most powerful Mafia family in Montreal, Canada. In 1988, Nick Rizzuto was convicted of cocaine trafficking and his son Vittorio "Vito" Rizzuto became boss of the family. By 1999 the Rizzuto crime family began working independently, while remaining allies to the Bonanno family. Vito Rizzuto was arrested in January 2004 and extradited to the United States on murder charges in August 2006. In May 2007, Rizzuto accepted a plea deal for his involvement in the May 1981 murders of three renegade Bonanno capos in New York. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, with a projected release date of October 2012. However, after his release, Rizzuto faces the possibility of extradition to Italy to face conspiracy and money laundering charges concerning the Straits of Messina Bridge project there. On November 10, 2010, Nick Rizzuto was killed at his residence in the Cartierville borough of Montreal.