Montreal Mafia murder trial: Secret recordings paint picture of deadly scene


SQ informant secretly record conversations he had with Dominico Scarfo in 2019, three months after Mob boss Salvatore Scoppa was killed.

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The people who allegedly worked under Salvatore Scoppa when he ordered the deaths of two leaders in the Montreal Mafia felt no love lost when he was killed three years after the Mob hits were carried out.

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Dominico Scarfo, 49, is on trial before a jury at the Gouin courthouse where he is charged with the first-degree murders of Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito. Scarfo is alleged to have shot Giordano on March 1, 2016, in Laval and to have played a role in the death of Sollecito on May 27, 2016, also in Laval.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Marie-Christine Godbout told the jury the murders were ordered by Scoppa, a leader among a Calabrian clan in the Montreal Mafia who wanted to eliminate leaders of a Sicilian clan.

The man who actually shot Sollecito eventually became an informant for the Sûreté du Québec in 2019 and was used to secretly record a series of conversations he had with Scarfo that summer. That included a conversation the two men had on Aug. 6, 2019, while driving in a vehicle to a town somewhere outside of Montreal.

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Three months earlier, Scoppa had been killed at a hotel in Laval.

During one part of their conversation, Scarfo and the informant, whose name cannot be published, shared what they knew about Scoppa’s final moments.

“So, you know how this got done then,” the informant asked Scarfo.

“He went for a smoke and that’s it,” Scarfo replied with a chuckle.

“You know how this got done? Who is it, who who,” the informant asked.

Scarfo then said that another person who was at the hotel told him that Scoppa sensed something was about to happen. He said the person told him Scoppa was suspicious of a truck that had been “going around” the hotel.

“But Sal didn’t click when (someone) said let’s go outside for a smoke? I’m surprised that Sal didn’t click. He saw that (there) was a suspicious truck,” the informant said.

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Scarfo also revealed that his source of information was a woman who witnessed Scoppa being shot and noticed the shooter’s blue eyes underneath a mask. Scarfo said the woman assumed the shooter would be arrested soon because he used a limited edition Ford Explorer for the hit. The homicide remains unsolved.

At different points in the conversation and a previous one, the informant suggests he and Scarfo were not paid what they were promised by Scoppa. He appeared to bring up the subject often in an effort to obtain Scarfo to make incriminating statements.

That included a specific reference to Scarfo’s alleged role in Sollecito’s murder. According to the Crown’s theory of the case, Scarfo waited for Sollecito to leave his home that morning and positioned a vehicle in front of Sollecito’s BMW. When both vehicles reached a designated spot at an intersection on St-Elzéar Blvd., Scarfo’s vehicle came to a dead stop, forcing Sollecito’s BMW to do the same. The gunman, who was waiting inside a bus shelter, shot Sollecito eight times through the passenger side window.

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Scarfo appeared to understand the reference, as the informant said an accomplice in the slaying, a getaway driver, felt Scarfo should be paid less than he was promised.

“I’m pissed off that Sal got whacked. I wanted me to whack him. you know? For all that the f–ker did,” the informant said.

“I never betrayed anybody, but this guy. He f–ked me over,” Scarfo replied.

“Bro, I have served it. You know why,” the informant asked.

“I have deserved it,” Scarfo said while raising his voice.

“You know, don’t let your loyalty make a fool out of you,” the informant said.

“That’s exactly what happened to me all my life,” Scarfo replied.

The trial will resume on Thursday.

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