MONTREAL, March 15 (UPI) -- Police in Montreal say they're concerned about a possible war between Canadian organized crime families after finding a warehouse full of weapons.
The force said in a statement Tuesday the weapons cache was discovered Feb. 1 and investigators kept it quiet while scouring security video and following paper evidence trails, the QMI Agency reported.
"Investigators have positively identified the person who owns this warehouse," the statement said. "He is known to police for having links to Italian organized crime".
Officers found a "massive" arsenal of submachine guns, explosives, smoke-bombs and ammunition, the report said.
Police raided the warehouse based on a tip, The (Montreal) Gazette reported.
Since 2009, authorities say, the Rizzuto family has come under deadly challenges for its 30-year control of loansharking, drugs and money laundering in the city, QMI said.
Family patriarch Nick Rizzuto was gunned down last fall in front of his wife and daughter outside their home. His son, Nick Jr. was shot down in public in 2009.
The eldest son, Vito, is due to be released from a U.S. federal prison in Colorado next year, after serving more than three years for his role in a triple homicide in 1981, the report said. UPI
