Mafioso Antonio Pietrantonio, who at one time was part of the bodyguard of the late mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto, was the victim of an armed attack around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening in downtown Montreal.
Published at 5:08 p.m.
Pietrantonio, 61, had just gotten out of his car, at the corner of Queen and Ottawa streets, when a vehicle in which at least two suspects were in stopped alongside him.
“Two men got out of the suspect vehicle and there was an altercation. The victim suffered superficial injuries to the upper body. There was no transport to the hospital,” described officer Antony Dorelas of the Montreal Police Department.
According to our information, while defending himself, Pietrantonio was injured in one hand by a sharp object. He was accompanied by a member of his family who witnessed the scene.
These were witnesses who called 911.
Attempted murder, kidnapping, theft or other motive, this remains unclear and all hypotheses are currently on the table for SPVM investigators.
“The motive is unknown at this time,” says Officer Dorelas.
A man already targeted
Pietrantonio is nicknamed Tony Suzuki because of an automobile sales business he once owned.
In the early 1990s, he was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with the importation of 740 kilograms of cocaine seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) off the coast of Nova Scotia.
During the 90s and 2000s, he was considered by the police as a member of the close guard of the former godfather of the Montreal mafia, Vito Rizzuto.
In the early 2000s, during the Colisée investigation, the RCMP suspected him of being the head of a mafia cell, but investigators focused their efforts on other suspects and he was not arrested by investigators from the federal police’s Joint Investigation Unit against Organized Crime (UMECO).
In 2009 and 2010, during a failed coup attempt against the Rizzuto clan, Antonio Pietrantonio chose the side of the rebel clans and was injured in an attempted gunshot while leaving a restaurant on Jarry Street in Montreal in December 2011.
According to police information, Pietrantonio would have rallied in recent years to Martin Robert, an influential member of the Hells Angels from the Montreal section who is currently still in conflict with the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia for control of sports betting.
Pietrantonio, who is suspected by police of being a drug importer, was one of the guests at Martin Robert’s wedding held in a lavish ballroom in downtown Montreal in December 2018.
According to our information, the police observed him on a few occasions with relatives of the biker and his associates in recent years.
To contact Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.
