What Vito Rizzuto Did When Joe Massino Flipped

Former Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto and his wife promptly hopped
on a flight to Cuba when he learned Massino had flipped.
Police used a Canadian comedian to infiltrate Vito Rizzuto's Montreal Mafia organization, the Montreal Journal reported tonight.

The effort occurred in Cuba. Though the comedian, Michel Courtemanche, was allegedly unaware of the role he'd played, Fidel Castro's Communist regime eagerly participated in the operation.

In 2003, members of the New York-based Bonanno crime family called Rizzuto and told him that the crime family's boss, Joseph Massino, had flipped (two calls were placed; the first apparently told him to go to a restaurant on Montreal's South Shore, where he got the news).


Rizzuto knew he was facing serious trouble as Massino not only had knowledge of but had orchestrated the hit on three dissident Bonanno capos in 1981; the former mob boss knew that Vito Rizzuto and two other members of the family's Canadian outpost had been the primary shooters -- as Massino wanted proverbial "out-of-town talent" to do the work.

Vito Rizzuto and his wife promptly flew to Cuba the next day, to the Melia Las Americas, a resort in Varadero, Cuba. There, Rizzuto and his wife could enjoy the five-star resort's tropical-style rooms, each of which offers a beach-side view via a balcony; they could dine in any one of its seven restaurants (ranging from casual, poolside snacks to fine-dining), as well as pay a visit to the hotel's three bars and a nightclub.

"Vito went there to assess its options," said retired Montreal Mafia investigator Tony Bianco. Canadian law enforcement apparently kept tabs and knew exactly where he was; they knew someone else was at the same resort at the same time.

When Bianco learned of this coincidence, he orchestrated a meeting between the two, hoping to use Courtemanche as an informant. The "Quebec humorist has a certain attraction" among Canadians, particularly those living in Quebec, where Rizzuto lived.



Michel Courtemanche


Bianco believed that Courtemanche's charisma likely would win over the mob boss. The effort proved successful. The Rizzutos "had fun with Courtemanche, sharing stories and cocktails." It's not revealed whether additional members of the Rizzuto organization flew down to Cuba as well. The story (translated from French) refers to the Rizzuto clan having fun with the comedian.

Based on the success of the relationship between mob boss and humorist, Bianco decided to move from what had been a surveillance operation to a sting operation.

Plainclothes police officers arrived in Cuba to help facilitate "alliances" between Courtemanche and the Rizzuto group.

Unbeknownst to the comedian, the strategy worked perfectly. Although none of the intelligence accrued has been made available.

The operation ended and the RCMP considered it successful.

Then they tried to use the comedian as an undercover operative back in Quebec by having him seek to continue the relationship with Rizzuto sparked in Cuba. However, some undercover plainclothes operatives were somehow believed to have been exposed -- and were then deemed "unusable."

The op was called off.

Bianco is still rankled by what could have been a successful infiltration of the Rizzuto hierarchy. "This is the closest we have ever been" at gaining "first hand information about Rizzuto."

A view of Melia Las Americas, a resort in Varadero, Cuba.
Still a high-profile popular comedian? It's unlikely a mob boss of Rizzuto's intelligence would've told him anything useful. Ultimately, it depends on what Bianco meant by "firsthand information" about Rizzuto because there seems to be an awful lot of it available.


Why Vito Got Off So Lightly for Three Homicides
John W. Mitchell Esquire represented Rizzuto at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn.

Vito only faced the racketeering charge of conspiracy to commit murder for a criminal organization. 
The charge was lowered to conspiracy because American officials feared Canada wouldn’t extradite him if there was the potential for him to be executed. 
In his pre-sentence statement to court, Vito stopped short of telling the judge that he actually fired a fatal shot. 
“I did participate.…My job was to say, ‘It’s a hold-up,’so everybody would stand still.”
Vito told the judge that he wasn’t well and that he’d received some troubling news after a checkup a few weeks earlier. 
“They said they found a spot in my lungs, but they haven’t said what’s up to now yet,”Vito said. 
“They have to give me a CAT scan but will bring me to the hospital, but they haven’t,”he told court. 
Vito’s words didn’t win him much sympathy -- feigning illness is a well-known ploy of mobsters seeking to talk their way out of trouble with the law. 
He was sentenced to 10 years, but only had to serve five-and-a-half years because he was credited for his three-year pretrial custody.
He could have even gotten out three years earlier than he did, if he had agreed to stay in the United States for the duration of parole.
The judge also recommended that Vito be held someplace where he could receive further medical testing. 
Vito originally expected the deal would include a provision allowing him to stay in a prison near the Quebec border so his family could visit. But that wasn't the case.
Rizzuto died abruptly of cancer (few knew he'd been battling the disease) in December 2013 after waging a long, bloody battle against a rival Cosa Nostra faction supported by a Ndrangheta contingent primarily based in Toronto.



One month prior to his death, Rizzuto, continuing his vendetta, ordering a hit in Mexico. Moreno Gallo, a turncoat member of Rizzuto's Mafia organization, was attempting to enjoy his retirement/exile in a sun-baked beachside resort. At an Italian restaurant in Acapulco, he was shot several times in the head.
The war continued after Rizzuto's death. His son Leonardo, a lawyer, was named as a member of a two-man panel running the family. (Vito Rizzuto's other son, Nick, was assassinated, as was Vito's father while Rizzuto was in prison in America.)
The impact of the arrests earlier this year stemming from two major drug trafficking investigations, Projects Magot and Mastiff, was widespread enough to create the potential for a new dynamic in Montreal's underworld. The probe examined links between the mob, Hells Angels, and street gang members.

It was an alleged murder plot of Vito Rizzuto's chief enemy, Raynald Desjardins, that set in motion the November 2015 predawn raids in Quebec, which sweeped up 48, including members of the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels.

Arrested were Rizzuto's son, an attorney reportedly not involved in organized crime (Leonardo Rizzuto, 46, took over after his father's death, police today claimed), and the daughter of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, a legendary former president of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter.

Boucher himself was arrested in his jail cell where he's serving multiple life sentences for killing two prison guards.

Arrested were Rizzuto's son, 46, the daughter of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, a legendary former president of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter, and Boucher himself, who was cuffed in his prison cell where he's serving multiple life sentences for killing two prison guards.

War broke out after Vito's arrest by U.S. authorities -- the battle lines drawn between those loyal to an imprisoned Rizzuto and those not; among the lives claimed in the fighting were several key family members, including Rizzuto’s father and son, both named Nicolo Rizzuto.

By 2010, Salvatore "Sal the Ironworker" Montagna, a former Bonanno boss from New York, joined forces with the renegade Rizzuto faction.

But a dispute among Vito's enemies led to an attempted hit on Desjardins, and it didn't take long for them to figure out who was behind it. The result -- Sal The Ironworker was killed a few weeks later. One source reportedly said of Montagna: "He thought he was a lot smarter than he was."