Ever since the attempted hit on Leonardo Rizzuto which occurred last year, the Montreal mafia has been keeping a low-profile and has been successfully dodging media outlets. Of course, there was the massive international drug bust ‘Operation Dead Hand’ in which Roberto Scoppa had been a part at the beginning of the year. Roberto Scoppa denies there was any involvement between the bust and the mafia in the province of Quebec, but authorities believe otherwise.
Along with the Scoppa bust this year, police came knocking at the door of another clan of the Montreal Mafia at the end of March. This time, the ‘big fish’ targeted were the Lopez brothers, Pasquale and Franco Lopez. 13 arrests were made in total, all individuals arrested were either part of the same clan or acquaintances of the clan. The arrests made in March were in relation to drug trafficking and illegal gambling.
Apart from these past events, the mob has been keeping it on the low. But this past week, a man closely associated to the mob managed to dodge a hit which occurred this Wednesday evening (26/06/2024). His name is Antonio Pietrantonio, a 61-year-old individual, nicknamed ‘Tony Suzuki’. Tony, for Antonio, and Suzuki for a past business venture in which he owned a Suzuki dealership.
Towards 6pm on Wednesday evening, Tony Suzuki was getting out of his car, accompanied by his daughter, after parking it near the intersection of Queen and Ottawa in downtown Montreal. As he was exiting his vehicle, Suzuki noticed 2 other vehicles start to surround him. Among the several suspects in the two vehicles, two of them had gotten out of the vehicle. One with a pistol and the other with a knife, an ill-prepared duo for the upcoming hit.
Without hesitation, Suzuki, or Pietrantonio quickly grabbed the man that was equipped with a knife, to use him as a body shield in order to protect himself with the other ‘botched assassin’ which had the gun. The two assassin’s aborted the plan once they saw how many witnesses were at the scene. As of yet, the suspects have not been identified or located by authorities. Pietrantonio had gotten out of the situation with only minor injuries, as for his daughter, she was not affected physically by the attempted hit.
In the fashion of a cat having nine lives, this isn’t Pietrantonio’s first time evading a hit placed on him. On December 13th of 2011, at around 9pm near the intersection of Jarry and Chambord in the Villeray borough of the island, Pietrantonio was shot entering a restaurant. He was rushed to the hospital where he was considered in critical condition, with doctor’s fearing for his life. Pietrantonio made a miraculous recovery. A vehicle was later located by authorities less than a kilometer away from the crime scene.
The attempted hit on Pietrantonio in 2011 came only 3 weeks after Salvatore ‘Sal the Iron Worker’ Montagna was murdered in Montreal on November 24th of 2011. Although being born in Montreal, Montagna was raised in Sicily where at the age of 15, his family moved to the Bronx. Montagna served as acting boss for the Bonanno crime family in 2007. He also bridged the gap between Montreal and New York City for the Bonanno family at the time.
Pietrantonio was seen by the SQ meeting up with Montagna in September of 2011 along with Giuseppe ‘Joseph’ Renda. Authorities believed Pietrantonio sided with Montagna. Renda also disappeared in May of 2012, never to be found. In January of 2017, Renda’s wife made arrangements to have Joseph Renda legally declared deceased.
Pietrantonio was convicted in 1993, in a plot to import 740 kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela. This operation was named ‘Operation Jaggy’ by the RCMP. The ringleader of this operation was the infamous Raynald Desjardins, who plotted this coup with the Hells Angels MC. Desjardins was loyal to Vito Rizzuto, and was considered Rizzuto’s right hand man at the time. Desjardins also exposed a corrupt RCMP officer by the name of Jean Lord, in hopes of reducing his sentence. He accused Lord of selling him information. Later in 1994, in October, Desjardins was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Pietrantonio was sentenced to 3 years for his part in the crime.
A decade after the first attempt on Pietrantonio’s life, the criminal playground in Quebec is changing. With many more players in the game, it is hard to pinpoint which criminal organization could have executed the attempt on his life Wednesday. The more stunning fact is how ill-prepared the hitmen were. We know for a fact that Pietrantonio attended Hells Angels MC Montreal chapter president Martin Robert’s wedding in downtown Montreal in December of 2018. It’s a wonder who organized this attempted hit, but as the year develops, I have a feeling we’ll have more answers to this enigma.
