The Montreal police recently arrested two men as suspects in an attack carried out downtown three months ago on a man with alleged ties to the Montreal Mafia.
In a release, the Montreal police said the two men were arrested on Sept. 26 “in connection with an armed attack that occurred in June 2024 in the Ville-Marie borough. Two armed individuals attacked a man in the street before quickly fleeing in a vehicle.”
The man who was attacked was Antonio (Tony Suzuki) Pietroantonio, 61, who was convicted in the past for playing a role in a major conspiracy to smuggle a large amount of cocaine into Canada along with members of the Hells Angels. The plot failed when the boat sank in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The Hells Angels sent a scuba diver to try to find the cocaine several times, but he was unsuccessful. The scuba diver, Luc (Bordel) Borderleau, went on to become a prospect member of the biker gang.
On July 13, 1995, Pietroantonio was sentenced to a three-year prison term for his role in the plot. Mob leader Raynald Desjardins, 71, was sentenced to a 15-year prison term for his leading role in the affair.
At the time, both Pietroantonio and Desjardins were alleged to be part of the Rizzuto organization, but in 2010 when now-deceased Mafia leader Vito Rizzuto was serving time in the U.S., police sources told The Gazette that both men were part of a group of five individuals who sought to take control of the Montreal Mafia from the Rizzutos. The other three men were eventually killed.
In December 2011, Pietroantonio was left in critical condition after he was shot near the entrance of a Portuguese restaurant in a strip mall on Jarry St. E. near Chambord St.
According to the Montreal police, one of the suspects in the attack on Pietroantonio carried out three months ago was armed with a gun.
“On June 26, 2024 around 6 p.m., (Pietroantonio), a 61-year-old man, got out of his car near the intersection of Queen and Ottawa Sts. in the Ville-Marie borough. At the same time, a black vehicle stopped alongside him. Two individuals armed with a gun and a knife suddenly came out, then a conflict broke out between them and the victim. The victim was superficially injured in the upper body by the knife. The suspects then quickly fled in the same vehicle. No transport to hospital was necessary for the victim,” the police stated in the release.
“The suspects, ages 18 and 20, were arrested in Laval and Montreal. A search carried out in Laval also led to the seizure of evidence.”
Karim Atay, 18, and Estoban Paoli-Sosa, 20, were both charged last week with assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon. The latter was released after he agreed to sign a $5,000 bond while Atay remains detained. The case is scheduled to return to court later this week.