Home Crime Slain Laval gunshot victim identified as Mafia drug trafficker

Slain Laval gunshot victim identified as Mafia drug trafficker

Sources cited by Radio-Canada identified a man shot dead on Tuesday morning outside a ceramic tile business on Autoroute 440 near Le Corbusier Blvd. as a well-known narcotics dealer who was associated with the Montreal Mafia.

The Laval Police say they received a 9-1-1 call around 7:46 am Tuesday about a possible gunfire incident at Céramique 440 on Laval’s main autoroute near Chomedey.

When LPD officers arrived at the location at a strip mall, they found the body of a man on the ground next to a vehicle.

The victim was identified by several Montreal media (citing police sources) as 66-year-old Vincenzo Armeni.

Shortly after Armeni was found shot, police also found a sports-utility vehicle, badly damaged by fire, parked near an abandoned house on 71st Ave. in Chomedey near the Lachapelle Bridge.

Although the police didn’t immediately draw a link between the two incidents, burning a getaway vehicle is a well-known modus operandi used by hired killers to quickly destroy evidence.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Armeni received a 19-year sentence in 2007 for his role in a conspiracy to traffic 750 kilos of cocaine.

Also according to The Gazette, Céramique 440 is referenced a few times in an affidavit that was prepared to obtain a search warrant for an investigation into how the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels worked together to control drug trafficking in Montreal.