Hospital: Reputed Montreal mob boss Rizzuto dead

Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia, has died. He was 67.
Maude Hebert-Chaput of Montreal's Sacre-Coeur Hospital says Rizzuto died of natural causes early today.
Authorities considered Rizzuto the head of Canada's most powerful criminal organisation when he was arrested in 2004.
He returned to Canada in October 2012 after serving a prison sentence in Colorado on racketeering charges related to three Mafia killings in New York City in 1981.
While he was in prison, his once-dominant empire was decimated by setbacks and his own family was devastated by tragedy.
The Rizzuto family sustained damage in 2006 following Operation Colisee, a five-year police investigation that culminated in mass arrests in the largest sweep against the Italian Mafia in Canadian history.

Rizzuto's eldest son, Nicolo Jr., was killed in broad daylight in December 2009. The shooting set off killings and disappearances targeting some of Rizzuto's closest allies and associates.
In November 2010, Rizzuto's father, Nicolo Sr., was shot and killed as he prepared to sit down to dinner with his wife and daughter. The 86-year-old was gunned down with a sniper's bullet through a window in his mansion.
Rizzuto's criminal empire stretched from South America to Europe. In 2005, Italian prosecutors filed charges against Rizzuto over allegations that the Mafia was involved in the building of a multibillion-dollar bridge linking mainland Italy to Sicily. The bridge was to be one of that country's largest-ever public works projects.