police found a Rastafarian-style wig discarded as the suspects fled on foot - from which they hope to get real hair samples - several guns, a glove and surveillance tapes, said Montreal police Inspector Charles Mailloux, of the special investigations unit.There were about 50 bullet holes in the walls of the FlawNego store, he added.But it wasn't until yesterday police arrested Joseph on Upper Lachine Rd. around 2 p.m., ostensibly on breaching his bail conditions.Arrested in September for assault causing bodily harm, Joseph was released on $50,000 bail. Among other conditions, he was not to associate with the co-accused, including Christopoulos.But he also may have been taken into custody for his own good, a source said yesterday.Interestingly, Joseph was arrested yesterday not far from where Nick Rizzuto Jr., the son of reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto, was gunned down in December, down the street from the offices of FTM Construction, run by Antonio Magi.
Mailloux refused to draw any links between Rizzuto's death and the shooting at Joseph's store Thursday. Retaliation is "one of the possible scenarios among many," Mailloux said. "It's only been 24 hours since the shooting." Stephen Schneider, author of Iced: A History of Organized Crime in Canada and a professor of criminology at St. Mary's University in Halifax, had several other, no less colourful, scenarios, however."There really is a power vacuum in Montreal with (Vito) Rizzuto in jail and no clear successor. ... I'm also wondering to what extent these killings relate to corruption in the construction industry and in the municipal government." Vito Rizzuto, currently in jail in the United States, emphasized an Omerta (code of honour) kind of secrecy, Schneider continued. Was the attempt on Joseph's life punishment for making information on the scandals public? "Is (Joseph) someone who has been cooperating with police and providing them with information?" The more obvious answer is that Joseph, reputed to be linked to the Bloods street gang, was trying to expand the gang's territory from Montreal North into central Montreal, said Julien Sher, an investigative journalist who has written two books on the Hells Angels.
And someone didn't like it.
"This guy is a relatively fast riser - a new boss in town who has stepped on a lot of toes and pissed off a lot of people." One of Joseph's sidekicks is dead, Sher continued, another is in a wheelchair, after being shot in a bar on the same street in Old Montreal.
"He leaves a trail of blood behind him, and leading to him." Maria Mourani, the Bloc Québécois MP for Ahuntsic who wrote a book about street-gang life in Montreal – La face cachée des gangs de rue – is convinced the hit has everything to do with the Rizzuto shooting in December, and the serial firebombings of Italian cafés.
"Everything is linked. It's an escalation of the conflict and violence. It didn't start yesterday, it started with shootings in cafés in 2008." Mourani said the Italian clan is divided, but so are its enforcers, the Bloods, also known as the Reds.
"The Blues and the Reds no longer mean anything in this conflict
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