MONTREAL, Que. – At least one person is expected to be charged Thursday in the firebombing of a Montreal funeral home belonging to the notorious Rizzuto family.
Montreal police Const. Yannick Paradis says charges will likely be arson, arson causing damage to property, possession of an incendiary material and conspiracy.
Police arrested three men in their 30s after the early-morning firebombing.
"The suspects will be interviewed today by the investigators but at this point we know that there may be a court appearance," Paradis said, adding it was not immediately known how many of them would be arraigned.
The Rizzuto crime family came to prominence with a violent coup against its Calabrian rivals in the 1970s but has lately been hobbled in an underworld power struggle that has killed several of its members, including patriarch Nicolo Rizzuto.
Police said the Loreto funeral home in the east-end district of Saint-Leonard was attacked just before 1 a.m. ET.
It is the same facility where a number of funerals have been held for members of the Rizzuto clan. The most recent such gathering was for Mafia don Nicolo Rizzuto, 86, who was shot and killed in his Montreal home on Nov. 10.
Police were alerted Thursday by a witness who saw two men run from the building and join a third man waiting in a getaway car.
Police intercepted the vehicle and all three men were arrested and taken in for questioning.
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Authorities also said there was no immediate indication of any injuries in the attack, and they were still trying to determine what type of device was used.
Firefighters arrived quickly on the scene and were able to contain the fire before serious damage was done to the building.
The Rizzuto crime family was once one of the most powerful Mafia families in the world, with tentacles reaching into businesses considered legitimate, including bars, restaurants and construction companies.
The clan was brought to its knees in a massive 2006 police dragnet where scores of mobsters were arrested.
The family and its associates have since been targeted in a series of slayings that crime analysts consider an attempt to end its hold on power.
Vito Rizzuto, the reputed boss of the family, remains in a U.S. jail, and the slaying of Nicolo Rizzuto drove an unmistakable nail into the coffin of the once-formidable criminal organization.
The large stone funeral home attacked Thursday is the highest-profile target to date in a rash of firebombings against Montreal businesses that began over a year ago.
Police have said the attacks, which began with a spate of coffee-shop bombings, are a clear sign of an underworld power struggle.
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