MACHINE-BUILT WHILE HIS MAFIA FRIEND MARCO PIZZI WENT TO THE BATHROOM

A pressing desire to urinate possibly saved the influential mafioso Marco Pizzi from the same fate as his comrade Tonino Callocchia, the day the latter was riddled with bullets.

At least that's what the police wrote in judicial documents related to the Magot investigation, where they report details of the murder of the one nicknamed Boots or Tony Coloc.

On December 1, 2014, at 12:58 p.m. sharp, Callocchia, a high-ranking drug trafficker in the Rizzuto clan, showed up with Pizzi, of whom he was a relative, at Bistro XO+, located on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard East in Montreal.

Pizzi, also considered by the police as a drug trafficker associated with the Rizzuto clan, then left his friend alone at their table to go to the toilet.

The previous year, Callocchia had survived a murder attempt.

On the morning of February 1, 2013, a shooter hit him with two bullets in the left side of the chest as he was leaving his vehicle, in the parking lot of the Youlios restaurant, on Saint-Martin Boulevard in Laval.

He had then managed to escape his attacker and take refuge inside the restaurant.

But that noon, two shooters were waiting for him in the parking lot.

According to our information, it would be gang leader Arsène Mompoint and mafia leader Salvatore Scoppa.

Under the shock

Each carrying a hood, the two armed men got out of their vehicle, broke into the restaurant-bar and approached their target.

"They each hold a weapon that they point on each side of Tonino Callocchia's head, then a dozen shots break out. The suspects flee through the front door," the police said in a report obtained by our Bureau of Investigation.

At 1:03 p.m., Marco Pizzi himself notified the police on the spot that his friend Callocchia had been shot and that he had died.

Later that day, Pizzi, still "in shock", told an acquaintance that he was urinating in the toilet when he heard the firearm detonations.

"He says that if he hadn't been [to the toilet], who knows, he might have been shot," we can read in this court document.

Targeted in turn

Two years later, Marco Pizzi managed to escape armed men who were chasing him and who had slammed his Mercedes.

One of his attackers, Kevin Rochebrun, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for his role in the attempted murder at the expense of Leonardo Rizzuto, son of the late godfather Vito Rizzuto, who was hunted and shot while driving his luxurious SUV on Highway 440 West in March 2023 in Laval.