The International Kingpins: Montreal's Rizzuto Family

The Underworld Podcast

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

International organized crime has rarely seen a figure as powerful and connected as Vito Rizzuto, Montreal's underworld king. When his father Nic left Italy for Montreal with his 8-year-old son, Nic was a small-timer looking to capitalize on his family connections and Sicilian upbringing. With the Calabrians and Sicilians at each other's necks in Canada's vice capital, Nic eventually worked his way to the top of Montreal's underworld in no small part due to his in-law mafioso contacts in drug trafficking hubs like Venezuela and Sicily. Montreal's heroin king partnered with New York's La Cosa Nostra while paving the way for his son Vito to take over, and Vito proved to be even more capable than his father, doing business with organized crime groups everywhere from Lebanon to China to Venezuela and uniting Montreal's warring factions into a massive unified front...before it all came crashing down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.0	May 5th 1981, Clinton Hill Brooklyn.
0:31.0	It's kind of yuppie Central now, but back then,
0:34.7	everyone was on edge.
0:36.5	You see, there's been a war going on in the mafia,
0:39.4	but it's not one family against the other.
0:41.4	It's a civil war in the Banana family. Three Banana
0:45.0	captains are on their way to meet their newly self-appointed boss. They think they're
0:50.1	on the way to discuss a peace settlement.
0:52.7	Among them is a guy by the name of Sonny Red who,
0:55.4	if you've ever seen the movie Donnie Brasco,
0:57.4	you know a version of this story.
	...

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