Suspected Montreal mobster nabbed at Toronto gym

Toronto police have arrested an alleged high-ranking Montreal Mafioso they say dodged the law for months after altering his appearance with plastic surgery.

Lorenzo Giordano, 43, was arrested Tuesday at a gym near his Wellington St. home in Toronto, nearly six months after Montreal police issued a warrant in his name.

The arrest was straightforward because Giordano wasn't carrying his gun or wearing his usual bulletproof vest, said RCMP spokesman Luc Bessette. "He was on a treadmill, running in a fitness centre on King St."

Giordano was among 90 suspects targeted in a massive Montreal law enforcement operation last year that police say cracked the notorious criminal underworld allegedly headed by the Rizzuto family.

After the massive police sweep last November, Giordano went missing, and police had trouble tracking him because he changed his facial appearance through plastic surgery and seems to have more hair on his head, Bessette said. He didn't specify how Giordano's facial appearance changed.

Police believe Giordano was a key player in the alleged Rizzuto mob organization that is accused of importing cocaine through Montreal's Trudeau International Airport.

Giordano is accused of trafficking drugs, extortion andbookmaking, as well as attempted murder and aggravated assault in connection with a shooting outside Montreal's Globe restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard in April 2004.