A reputed member of Montreal’s organized crime community was shot dead Monday afternoon, sources have confirmed to Radio-Canada.
Francesco Del Balso was shot near the corner of Deacon Street and St-Régis Boulevard in Dorval on Montreal’s West Island.
Montreal police were on the scene and reported a shooting with a deceased victim.
Del Balso was arrested as part of the Montreal mafia’s Operation Colisée in 2006. He was convicted of gangsterism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
He was released in 2016 and then sent back to prison over concerns for his safety. Parole board documents at the time described him as “next on an execution list”. Del Balso was re-released in 2017.
The shooting follows two other high-profile attacks this year.
In March, Leonardo Rizzuto, who was reportedly taking over from his father Vito Rizzuto as leader of the Montreal mafia, was shot at in Laval, Que. The car he was driving was hit by several bullets. Rizzuto survived with injuries.
On May 16, Claudia Iacona, the daughter-in-law of Montreal Mafia member Moreno Gallo, was killed in a targeted shooting in the parking lot of her beauty salon in the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood. .
