Mafia-International.com - Montreal Crime Family

The 1960's was an important time for both factions within the Montreal crime family, the international heroin trade was going strong and Montreal had become one of the foremost narcotics landing or shipping points in North America. Canada's demand for the drug was profitable, but the American market was were it was at and the Montreal crime family was in a position and had cemented a business alliance with the American mafia to oversee the importation of the heroin into Canada and the transportation and sale of the of the drug into the American market. Both factions of the Montreal crime family were deeply involved in the heroin trade, Giuseppe "Pep" Cotroni was the overseer of the Calabrian factions narcotics operations, Pep made big money for the Cotroni faction wholesaling heroin into the United States as the Montreal Calabrians had long been connected to the French-Corsican Mob, but since the late 1950's the Sicilian mafia had taken over the procurement of the heroin bound for the North American market and else where around the world. The new trans-Atlantic drug network the American and Sicilian mafia had created gave Montreal's Sicilian faction a huge advantage over the Calabrians, with the arrest of Pep Cotroni in 1959 in what was up to then the biggest narcotics bust in Canadian history the Calabrian faction began to encounter problems within the narcotics trade and with the death of Lucky Luciano in 1962 Luigi Greco's main heroin source was compromised, but Nick Rizzuto was in a position to takeover the majority of heroin importation into Montreal and it's distribution into the Canadian and American markets, the rise of the Sicilians was beginning.!

While Montreal's Calabrian faction was sitting in the leadership chair and in control over the majority of the traditional rackets and legitimate business operations the Montreal crime family held, the Sicilian faction and more precisely, the Rizzuto crew concentrated on narcotics operations, the key to Nick Rizzuto's future takeover of the Montreal crime family and the base of his early power! Nick Rizzuto's close connections to the Agrigento, Sicily area mafia gave the Montreal Sicilians direct access to the heroin supply coming out of Sicily, since the late 1950's the Sicilian mafia and it's newly formed ruling Commission, the "Cupola" had immersed itself deep into the international heroin trade! The French-Corsican Mob had supplied the Italian mafia and the world with heroin since the 1920's and had been involved with the Italians in the contraband cigarette trade for decades, but since the late 1950's the Sicilian mafia Bosses and the Clans they led used their years of experience in the contraband cigarette smuggling trade and the new alliance with the American mafia to place themselves in a position to rival the French-Corsican Mob in regards to the procurement of opium base from South-East Asia (the Golden Triangle) and the Middle East (Pakistan & Iran), have it made and refined into heroin in clandestine laboratories in Sicily and mainland Italy then shipped off to their satellite groups in North America and elsewhere so the heroin could be wholesaled to the Canadian and American mafia who oversee the heroins distribution and sale to other crime groups in the North American underworld.

In the early 1960's an underworld war labeled "The First Great Mafia War" of 1962-64 took place in Sicily and would influence the future of the international narcotics trade and the Sicilian mafia, along with the future leadership and structure of the Montreal mafia! The war in Sicily pitted factions on the Cupola involved in the international heroin trade, a lost portion of a heroin shipment and the profits from the shipment instigated a bloody conflict between the more conservative and traditional mafia Bosses and Clans on the Cupola who were being rivaled by the more liberal and less traditional leaders and their supporters. The war would influence the Italian government in Rome to launch a law enforcement attack on the Sicilian mafia not seen since the 1920's when the former Fascist government of Benito Mussolini sent the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori up against the Sicilian mafia in an attempt to wipe out the secret society which was seen by Mussolini as a second government and rivals opposed to his leadership.

The "First Great Mafia War" inadvertently caused many top Sicilian mafia Bosses and members to flee Sicily in order to escape the government crack down and possible arrest, prosecution, conviction and long jail sentences regarding their involvement with the mafia and in doing so these Sicilian mafia Bosses and members set up satellite groups and bases of operation in other counties around the world such as the United States, Canada, England, Venezuela, Brazil, Germany, giving the Sicilian and North American mafia immense, worldwide expansion in regards to manpower, connections and resources concerning their international narcotics interests! The emigration of the Rizzuto family to Montreal, along with their closest and strongest allies, the Cuntrera-Caruana family which had various members of their Clan emigrate to Montreal in the 1950's placed both these mafia groups in a position that was vital to the Sicilian and American mafia's heroin pipeline and with the added emigration in the early 1960's of close and important Sicilian mafia associates across the globe who could assist them in various operations, including narcotics and money laundering, the Rizzutos were now set to dominate the Canadian branch of the Sicilian mafia's international narcotics network. The Rizzuto-Manno-Cammalleri Clan and their close associates in the Cuntrera-Caruana Clan had long been part of the Agrigento mafia which came under the leadership and influence of top Sicilian mafia Boss, Don Giuseppe Setticasi (Settecase), the Capo-provincia (Provincial Boss) of the Agrigento province. Giuseppe Setticasi controlled or had influence over all the rackets, legitimate businesses and narcotics interests in his area of Sicily, those controlled and operated by various mafia Clans or Cosce such as the Rizzuto-Manno-Cammalleri of Cattolica Eraclea and the Cuntrera-Caruana of Siculiana, two Clans who rising mafiosi such as Nick Rizzuto, Domenico Manno, the Cuntrera brothers, Paolo, Gaspare, Pasquale and Liborio, thier cousins Agostino Cuntrera and the Caruana brothers, Pasquale, Gerlando and Alfonso, along with Giovanni DiMora and Giuseppe Cuffaro had been mentored by Settecasi and were now around the world as rising mafia powers with the support of Settecasi. Don Giuseppe Setticasi was a respected, powerful, influential and important member of the Sicilian Cupola, he controlled the narcotics routes and the transportation of the drugs in his area which placed him in a position vital to the Sicilian mafia's heroin network and at the same time gave his underlings, the Rizzutos in Montreal access to an unlimited heroin supply and the support they needed from Sicily to facilitate their rise in the international narcotics trade and the Montreal mafia, events in Montreal and New York would also influence the rise of the Rizzuto crime family.