35 Facts About Nicolo Rizzuto

Nicolo Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy, in 1924, and immigrated to Montreal in 1954 with his wife, son and daughter.

Nicolo Rizzuto married into the mob through his wife Libertina Manno's family, beginning as an associate in the Sicilian faction of the Calabrian Cotroni crime family, which had most of the control in Montreal.

Nicolo Rizzuto was incarcerated twice, once in 1988 on drug charges where he served five years in a Venezuelan prison, and the other in 2006 where he served two years in jail of a tax evasion charge.

Nicolo Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, Italy, on February 18,1924.

On March 20,1945, Nicolo Rizzuto married Libertina Manno, the daughter of Antonio Manno, a local Mafia leader in their hometown.

On February 21,1954, along with his wife, son and daughter, Nicolo Rizzuto immigrated to Canada by ship and docked at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before moving on to Montreal, Quebec.

Nicolo Rizzuto was able to form his own crew with help from several other Sicilian relatives and associates living in Montreal.

Nicolo Rizzuto had ties to organized crime in Canada, the United States, Venezuela and Italy.

Nicolo Rizzuto began his Mafia career in Canada as an associate of the Cotroni crime family, which controlled much of Montreal's drug trade in the 1970s while answering to the Bonanno crime family of New York City.

Nicolo Rizzuto was more closely linked to the Mafia in the old country, in particular the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan, who came from the same region in Sicily as Rizzuto.

Paolo Renda, Nicolo Rizzuto's son-in-law, disappeared on May 20,2010, and is presumed to have been kidnapped.

Nicolo Rizzuto, who was one of the biggest "earners" in the Cotroni family owing to his involvement in the drug business, especially disliked Violi.

Nicolo Rizzuto was enraged when Cotroni appointed Violi as his successor, whom the journalist Jerry Langton noted was "another Calabrian, and an ill-mannered and disrespectful one at that".

Menard's bugs recorded Cotroni and Violi discuss "getting rid of" Nicolo Rizzuto and make him "disappear" from the world forever.

However, in 1974, Nicolo Rizzuto was summoned to testify at La Commission d'enquete sur le crime organise hearings, which led him to flee to Venezuela, which had no extradition treaty with Canada.

In Venezuela, Nicolo Rizzuto formed an alliance with the Corsican gangsters of Le Milieu to continue the French Connection heroin smuggling network via South America.

Nicolo Rizzuto appointed his son Vito to handle operations in Montreal while he opened up a pizzeria in Caracas called Los Padrinos.

Nicolo Rizzuto became a Venezuelan citizen along with the Cuntrera brothers, Pasquale and Gaspare, who like him fled Montreal to avoid having to testify at the CECO hearings.

Nicolo Rizzuto owned a nightclub in Caracas named Ill Padrone and was very involved in the construction industry.

Vito Nicolo Rizzuto went to New York to meet "the Commission" and asked for permission to have Violi killed as he argued that Violi was too "stupid" to be the next boss of the Cotroni family as proven by l'affaire Menard.

The peace talks failed, and most of the Nicolo Rizzuto family fled to Venezuela.

Nicolo Rizzuto returned to Canada in the 1980s and settled on Gouin Boulevard, a section of which became a Mafia "village".

Closely allied to Nicolo Rizzuto were the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan whose operations went far beyond Montreal with the clan being active in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and Venezuela.

Nicolo Rizzuto was arrested in Venezuela on August 2,1988, after investigators found 700 grams of cocaine at Rizzuto's residence.

Nicolo Rizzuto was sentenced to eight years in a Venezuelan prison, but was paroled after five years, in 1993, after an associate of the family delivered an $800,000 bribe to Venezuelan officials.

Nicolo Rizzuto's lawyers said it was due to his health condition.

On November 22,2006, Nicolo Rizzuto was arrested along with dozens of others including Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi, Lorenzo Giordano, Francesco Del B as part of the four-year Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation known as Project Colisee.

On September 18,2008, Nicolo Rizzuto pleaded guilty to possession of proceeds of a crime for the benefit of, the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization.

On October 16,2008, Nicolo Rizzuto was released from prison after serving two years of a suggested four-year sentence, as prosecutors could not directly implicate Nicolo Rizzuto in crimes exposed by investigators.

On February 11,2010, Nicolo Rizzuto entered a guilty plea for two counts of tax evasion charges, which stemmed from a Canada Revenue Agency investigation for the tax years of 1994 and 1995.

Nicolo Rizzuto was accused of hiding $5.2 million deposited in Swiss bank accounts and failing to report $728,000 in interest income.

On November 10,2010, Nicolo Rizzuto was killed at his residence in the Cartierville borough of Montreal when a single bullet from a sniper's rifle penetrated the double-paned glass of the rear patio doors of his mansion; he was 86.

Nicolo Rizzuto's death is believed to be the final blow against the Rizzuto crime family.

Nicolo Rizzuto was buried at Saint-Francois d'Assise cemetery in Saint-Leonard, Quebec in a private ceremony.

On July 12,2013, Salvatore Calautti, a Toronto criminal figure, suspected by police of being the assassin who shot Nicolo Rizzuto, was shot dead.