Post date: May 10, 2013 11:2:54 AM
Italian Carabinieri police say they have found the body of a high-ranking Canadian mafia boss who appears to have been killed in Sicily.
BAGHERIA, SICILY, ITALY (CARABINIERI POLICE HANDOUT) - The bodies of a high-ranking Canadian mafia boss and of another Canadian were found in an illegal waste dump in the Sicilian countryside on Thursday (May 9), Italian police said.
Two Sicilian brothers have been arrested in connection with the killings.Police said that Juan Ramon Fernandez and Fernando Pimentel were hit by at least 30 bullets, when ambushed in a rural area near Casteldaccia, in WesternSicily.
Fernandez, of Spanish origin, is thought to have been a prominent member ofToronto's Rizzuto clan. He had moved to Sicily in June 2012 after being expelled from Canada after a 10-years prison term. Police, who were monitoring his activities as part of an investigation into ties between Canadian and Sicilian mafia, had last seen Fernandez on April 9.
Two alleged Sicilian mafia members, brothers Pietro and Salvatore Scaduto, also believed to be connected with the Canadian Rizzuto clan, were arrested for the double murder.
Police think the order to kill Fernandez and Pimentel may have come from Canada, since Fernandez had declined to take sides in a mafia war between his boss Vito Rizzuto and breakaway boss Raynald Desjardin, a statement said.