MONTREAL—A 49-year-old man with ties to organized crime was shot and killed in St-Leonard on Thursday night.
According to Montreal's La Presse newspaper, the victim was Vincenzo Scuderi, a man arrested in December in a crackdown on a drug trafficking ring, but otherwise with no criminal record. The police could not confirm the identity.
“Our investigators have yet to positively identify the gentleman who was shot, but we have a pretty good idea who it is,” said Montreal police spokesman Daniel Lacoursiere.
Police found the man in critical condition near the intersection of Robert Blvd. and Bonnivet St. just after 6 p.m. Several neighbours called 911 after hearing gunshots and spotting the man slumped on a sidewalk. The victim was taken to hospital where he was declared dead.
“I know a month ago there was trouble around here,” said Panatoureau Fatourou, a woman who lived near where the man was killed. “I heard it was drug-related or something like that.”
The killing was Montreal’s sixth homicide of 2013—at this point in 2012 only two people had been killed. Police have no suspects.
