Assassinations, firebombs on rise as mobsters fight to be crowned Montreal's next godfather

Once feared and respected within the underworld, Montreal's Mafiahas become a shadow of its former self as rival clans battle each other to see which Mob boss will becomethe city's next godfather.

The civil war within the Montreal Mob is being played out in a series of assassinations and, increasingly, firebombingsof businesses linked to Mafia associates.

Police suspect Mafia activity was behind at least 13 firebombings in the greater Montreal regionlast year, almost double the seven they identified in 2015, saida communications officer for the Montreal police.

The latest case of Mafia-linked arson may have occurred Monday morning, when a strip mall in Laval's Vimontneighbourhoodwent up in flames. Police are describing the fire as "suspicious."

• Suspected target of fire that destroyed Laval strip mall has Mafia ties

Among the four businesses that were destroyed was Streakz Coiffure, a hair salon ownedby Caterina Miceli. Another one ofMiceli'ssalonswas firebombedlast week.

Miceli is married to CarmeloCannistraro,who was arrested in 2006 as part of anRCMP-ledcrackdown on the Mafia.

RCMPdocuments submitted to Quebec's Charbonneauinquirylist Cannistraro as an associate ofFrank Arcadi, one of the Mafia bossesin the Rizzutoclan.

Account settling

The spate of firebombings has beenaccompanied by a series of grisly killings around the Montreal area,largely targetingthose linked to VitoRizzuto, the one-time godfather who turned the city's Mafia into one of the most successful organized crime operations in North America.

Rizzuto, known as the Teflon Don,pleaded guiltyin an American court to racketeering chargesin 2007 in exchange for a 10-year sentence in connection with the 1981 murders of three alleged gang leaders at aNew York social club.

He died of natural causes in 2013, 15 months after his release from a Colorado prison. Other members of his clan haven't been so fortunate.

Last October,VincenzoSpagnolo was shot to death at his home, also in Laval'sVimontneighbourhood. Organized crime experts say Spagnolo, 65, served as theright-hand man toRizzuto.

At the time, provincial police saidSpagnolo'sdeath appeared to be the result of a "settling of accounts" within the Mafia.

• Reputed associate of ex-Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto killed in 'settling of accounts'

LastMayRocco Sollecitowas gunned down while driving his BMW SUV through Laval.

He was suspected of actingas an adviserto Vito Rizzuto'sson Leonardo, who allegedly took over from his father. The youngerRizzuto is currently behind bars, awaiting trial on gangsterism and drug-trafficking charges.

Leonardo's brother, Nick Jr., and grandfather,Nicolo, wereshot dead in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Nature abhors a vacuum

In the early days of the bloodletting, it was unclear to observers who was behind the violence: streetgangs, the Hells Angelsand Mafia clans from outside the city were all tossed around as possibilities.

But Pierre deChamplain, a former organized-crime analyst for the RCMP,increasingly believesthe violence is coming from within the Montreal Mafia's own ranks.

The Rizzutos, originally from Sicily, took charge of the Mafia after wrestling power away from the Cotronis, from Calabria, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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Nicolo Rizzuto managed to successfully transfer the crown to his son, Vito. Under their leadership, deChamplain said,Montreal became an important hub in the international drug trade, a way-station for cocaine on its way to the U.S.

But Vito's death created a vacuum. And the ongoing violence is a sign no one has been able to establish himselfas a strong leader in his place, someone capable of earning the respect of the various factions within the Mob.

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"We may suspect at the moment that the so-called Calabrian faction has an advantage because the Sicilianfactions havebeen severely hit with casualtiesover the last years,"deChamplain said.

"So you might think that the Calabrian factions might be behind these fires, but that doesn't mean the Sicilians are not responding to this."

Where the Mafia falters, the Hells surge

As the war wages within the Mafia, if indeed that is what's happening, other organized crime groups have been able to reassert themselves.

This has notably been the case with the Hells Angels, which after being weakened by police arrests and internal conflictsof theirown have emerged once again as a force within Quebec's underworld.

"There is no war against them, and they are not at war with anyone,"deChamplain said.

"The longer their war goes on, the more the Mafia is weakened."

• IN DEPTH: Hells Angels recovering, growing stronger in Quebec, crime experts say