Mafia leader assassinated in Blainville

Orange police tape surrounds the driveway in Blainville where mafia second-in-command Joe Di Maulo was assassinated

A prominent member of the Montreal mafia was assassinated Sunday evening.

Police have confirmed that the man shot and killed in front of his Blainville home was Joe Di Maulo, who was widely regarded as the second-in-command of the mob.

Blainville police began the investigation but they transferred the file to the Surete du Quebec once the man's identity was confirmed.

So far it appears that an assassin was hiding in bushes near the residence on Blainvillier St., shooting and killing Di Maulo when he walked outside around 9 p.m.

Di Maulo was in his early 70s.

Di Maulo was the brother-in-law of Raynald Desjardins, another man with reputed mafia links who is known to be a close associate of Vito Rizzuto.

Desjardins, along with four others, was charged late last year with the 2011 murder of Salvatore Montagna.
Montagna was shot and killed in the early afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 on Ile Vaudry just north of Montreal. He was chased from a house by gunmen and pulled from the river by police.

Montagna had come to Montreal after being deported from New York where he had been one of the youngest-ever bosses of a depleted Bonnano crime family. His arrival inspired considerable speculation as it coincided with a lengthy series of slayings of Rizzuto family and associates.

Rizzuto was released from a U.S. prison last month, where he had served a sentence for murder.