[VIDÉO] Terror in the city center: a series of restaurateurs victims of violent acts of extortion

A criminal network has been sowing terror in restaurants in downtown Montreal for several weeks, carrying out violent acts of extortion to force owners to pay sums of up to $100,000.

The evening of September 12 is pleasant at the chic restaurant MAÜ on rue de la Montagne. A few young men are seated quietly at the bar. A little further on, a couple asks to see the menu, while another customer takes a photo of the spectacular chandelier with their phone.

Suddenly, at 8:20 p.m., a masked man wearing a hoodie burst through the main door. Armed with a hammer, he hits everything in his path. The tables, the glasses, the equipment behind the bar.

Frightened, customers run away. Others try to defend themselves with chairs.

The individual came to send a clear message: he demanded that the owner pay the sum of $100,000 to his criminal network.

“You’re going to pay!” he says in English before leaving the premises, not without smashing two windows in the portico.

A few days later, the restaurateur received another threatening message: an envelope containing gun bullets.

Scared owners

At least five other Montreal establishments have experienced similar traumatic events since July, our Bureau of Investigation discovered.

Over the past few days, we have been able to speak with several affected owners. All requested anonymity because they fear for their safety.

“I’ve had restaurants in the United States and this kind of attack doesn’t even happen there. If the police don’t protect us, who will?” asks one of them.

“Montreal has changed for the worse. We are afraid to walk on the street in the city center,” laments another trader.

Cocktail Molotov

On July 18, in the middle of the night, a brick and a Molotov cocktail were thrown at the Italian restaurant La Medusa, also in the city center.

According to our information, the restaurant’s video camera captured the attacker photographing the damage he caused. A way for him to prove to those who ordered the attack that he had carried it out well.

A week later, the window of the same establishment was shot at, and patio furniture was set on fire.

According to our information, the Hidden Fish sushi restaurant, rue de la Montagne, was also demanded a sum of $100,000. Its storefront was smashed. On the other hand, it was a neighboring establishment that received the envelope containing the bullets, probably by mistake. It was also the owner of the latter who called the police, which led to the launch of a criminal investigation.

In Griffintown, the Palma restaurant, on Peel Street, saw its windows shattered by gunfire in the middle of the night in July. The owner was asked for a ransom.

Street gangs

Several residents and merchants in this neighborhood had already been burned since November 2023, when Pizzeria Moretti on Wellington Street received five bullets in its window. There is nothing to link this attack to recent events occurring in other businesses. Note that the Court of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) suspended the restaurant license of this pizzeria for 25 days on July 18, after police officers regularly noted the presence of individuals who were members of the organized crime.

Well-informed sources told us that Montreal police are studying several hypotheses to explain the recent wave of extortion and violent events.

She suspects that emerging leaders among street gangs would use young people to carry out these attacks. The gangs are taking advantage of the instability that has reigned in the city’s criminal environment for several years.

“Vito Rizzuto would have resolved the situation with a phone call,” says an owner we met recently with annoyance, referring to the time when the Sicilian clan imposed its authority on the gangs.