Canada Mafia godfather shot dead at home

An 86-year-old Mafia don was shot dead by a gunman hiding in woods as he sat looking out of the solarium of his Montreal home.

Nicolo Rizzuto's death was the latest in a series of murders by rivals trying to end the family's grip on power — his grandson Nick Rizzuto Jr was killed last December and another high-ranking member, Agostino Cuntrera, was gunned down in June.

The Rizzutos came to prominence in Montreal with a violent coup against the Cotroni family, their Calabrian rivals, in the Seventies.

The clan was brought to its knees in a massive police operation in 2006. Nicolo's son, Vito, is in prison in Colorado for racketeering related to three Mafia murders.

"I don't know who killed Nicolo Rizzuto, but whoever did it wants to remove the Rizzuto crime family from the Canadian underworld map," said Antonio Nicaso, an author and journalist. "I think with his murder, it's like an end of an era in the Canadian underworld."

"We know that Mr Rizzuto was an important member of the Italian Mafia, but new players have surfaced in recent months," said Montreal police commander Denis Mainville.