Man with alleged ties to Montreal Mafia shot dead in Pierrefonds parking lot

The man shot to death in a Pierrefonds parking lot on Monday morning was Andrew Scoppa, an allegedinfluential figure in the Montreal Mafia, police sources tell Radio-Canada.

The shooting happened shortly after 8 a.m. Monday in the parking lot of a strip mall on St-Jean Boulevard near Harry Worth Street.

Const. Raphal Bergeron said the Montreal police major crimes unit is investigating, checking area surveillance cameras and speaking with possible witnesses.

The victim's brother,SalvatoreScoppa, was shot dead at a Sheraton Hotel in Laval lastMay.

An employee of a gym in the strip mall told CBC News hesaw the victim shortly before 8 a.m.

"I noticed the victim in his car because that's his usual routine waiting in his car for me to come open up the gym," he said.

"I went upstairs to openthe gym. When I got inside the gym, I heard two bangs. I thought it was construction because we are in a building that's under construction right now."

A few minutes later, the gym employeenoticed people were gathering outside so he went outside to investigate andsaw the man with serious injuries to his head.

No suspects have been arrested.

Earlier this month, Quebec provincial police arrested four people who were allegedlyinvolved with homicides connected to organized crime.

At that time,Sret du QubecChief Insp. Guy Lapointe said the homicides were linked to a "power struggle" between the Sicilian and Calabrian clans of the local Mafia.

'In the Mafia, blood calls for blood'

Antonio Nicaso, an expert on the Mafia, said Scoppa's deathis just the latest chapter in a long power struggle in the underworld, which emerged afterthe death of Vito Rizutto.

"In the Mafia, blood calls for blood." said Nicaso in an interview.

After Rizutto's death, Nicaso said, the Scoppa brothers fell out of favour with the family's new leadership, steadily losing trust from the still-powerful crime family.

Nicaso said that the assassination of Scoppa is unlikely to end the power struggle between the clans.