Montreal Mafia boss was targeted: police

The killing in St-Leonard earlier this week of a reputed mob boss is just the latest in a string of attacks against the Montreal Mafia, police say.

Insp. Bernard Lamothe said the public should know the double slaying of Agostino Cuntrera and his guard Liborio Sciasciathis wasn't random.

"They're not less safe today because Agostino Cuntrera was shot down" in front of his own business establishment, Lamothe told CBC News. "He was really the target."

Lamothe said Cuntrera's killing is just the latest in a larger pattern of violence against the Rizzuto family, which has been under attack for months.

"You have three murders and one kidnapping — they're all related and they're all very specific to one clan," Lamothe said, pointing to the killings of Cuntrera and his body guard on Tuesday, Nick Rizzuto Jr. last December and Frederico Del Pechio last August. Paolo Renda, believed to be Cuntrera's adviser,  was kidnapped in May.

The Rizzuto clan was weakened by police raids in 2006, according to organized crime expert Andre Cedilot. Nowe, he said, the attacks on the family are reaching a crescendo, and there are rumours they were ordered by an Ontario Mafia family.

No arrests have been made in any of the killings or the kidnapping.