Reputed Head Of Montreal Mafia Released In Colorado

FLORENCE, Colo. (AP) — The reputed head of the Montreal Mafia was released Friday from a federal prison in Colorado after serving half of a 10-year sentence in a racketeering case, authorities said.

Vito Rizzuto left FCI Florence prison after he pleaded guilty in 2007 and was given credit for time served and good behavior.

Rizzuto was the lone Canadian among 30 suspects arrested in a 2004 crackdown on the Bonanno organized crime family.

An indictment in New York charged Rizzuto with participating in the fatal shootings at a Brooklyn social club in May 1981 of three Bonanno captains — Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera, Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone and Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato.

The men were suspected of plotting to take control of the organization, authorities said.

Crime boss Joseph Massino was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to orchestrating those killings and five others.

Children discovered Indelicato's body in 1981 while playing in a vacant lot in Queens that became known as a graveyard for people ordered killed by gangsters.

In 2005, based on evidence from the Massino investigation, authorities returned to the site and unearthed the remains of Giaccone and Trinchera.

Rizzuto was charged with smuggling 16 tons of hashish into Canada, but the case was thrown out in 1990 after it was revealed that police had conducted unauthorized wiretapping.

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