Montreal Mafia: the arrest of a suspect who holds a grudge against the Rizzuto clan

Seven years after taking part in an armed attack against a big name in the Italian Mafia, a Reds henchman was dragged from his bed by police on Friday night in connection with a botched assassination attempt on Mafia leader Leonardo Rizzuto. Month in Laval.

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According to sources in our Bureau of Investigation, during a police operation being conducted by the National Organized Crime Suppression Squad (ENRCO), 32 year old Kevin Rochebrun was arrested at approximately 2:30 a.m. at his home in Muskouche.

ENRCO is a brigade made up of members of several police forces, including the Sûreté du Québec, that specifically seeks to bring to justice the suspects behind the shooting, during which the son of the late godfather Vito Rizzuto was wounded by gunfire while he On March 15, in the late afternoon, was traveling in his luxury Mercedes SUV on Highway 440 West.

No criminal charges have yet been filed against Rochebrun, whom authorities have linked to Montreal street gangs of Red allegiance.

The second suspect arrested by the NRCO in this case should be released during the day on Friday pending the outcome of the investigation.

Police also released their first suspect, Francesco del Balso, after catching the longtime mafioso and confiscating his passport at Trudeau airport on March 23 as he was preparing to leave the country from Europe.

The NRCO believes it is possible that Del Balso, a former high-ranking member of the Rizzuto clan who is now a close ally of the Hells Angels, may have ordered the attack against Rizzuto, in response to a shooting in which He himself was the target. at Laval on November 7, 2022, but without any bullets reaching him.

attack on mafioso pizza

Kevin Rochebrun’s arrest, like del Balso’s, appears to support the thesis that the attack was carried out at the expense of Leonardo Rizzuto – a lawyer member of the Barreau du Québec whom police still consider to be one of Rizzuto’s leaders. The Clan – Vengeance for a previous settlement of scores within the Sicilian faction of the Mafia will take place as a backdrop.

1^Is In August 2016, Rochebrun was part of a group of armed hoodlums who tried to eliminate Marco Pizzi, an alleged cocaine importer who is now listed by police as one of the Rizzuto clan’s most important associates.

When the robbers hit the back of his Mercedes that day, Pizzy fled to a park where children were playing in Montreal East.

Rochebrun, who was in possession of a Tec-9 submachine gun, a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum revolver and a Maverick .12 caliber shotgun at the time, was captured by police in Montreal a week later.

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Indicted by traces of his DNA that he left in the van involved in the collision with Pizzi’s Mercedes, Rochebrun was then sentenced to three years in prison.

a suffering friend

Last year, this soldier of the Reds even lost a friend, Marco Claudio Campellone, in settling a score involving the Italian mafia. Rochebrun spoke before the Federal Parole Board about the murder.

Campalone, 24, whom authorities identified as a rising star of the Rizzuto clan, was shot to death in front of his home in Riviere-des-Prairies on September 18, 2015.

On the day of Campalone’s funeral, a Molotov cocktail was thrown as a message at the building, which housed the premises of the Cavaliere et Associés law firm, where Leonardo Rizzuto’s law office was located.

Loris Cavaliere, who also represented Campellone in court, was expelled from the bar for life in 2018 after pleading guilty to gangsterism in the Magot police operation.

To the best of our knowledge, one of the police hypotheses concerning this murder, which has escaped conviction to date, is that the crime was first authorized by one of the leaders of the Rizzuto clan, rather than perpetrated by a rival criminal group. .