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“The most troubling aspect in the case (was) the presence and the hold, by certain individuals tied to the highest spheres of organized crime in Montreal, over control of the establishment.”
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• Montreal Gazette 
The 6e Avenue Bar et Grill in Rivière-des-Prairies has seen its liquor licence suspended for two months. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette
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A bar in Rivière-des-Prairies has seen its liquor licence suspended for two months after the Montreal police raised questions over who controlled it.
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The 60-day suspension is part of an agreement reached between the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) and the new owner of the 6e avenue Bar et Grill on Maurice Duplessis Blvd.
As part of the agreement, the new owner agreed to not allow Marco Pizzi, 52, and four members of his family to enter the premises. Police sources have described Pizzi as a man who appears to have grown in influence among the Montreal Mafia over the past decade.
The agreement reached with the new owner is detailed in a decision made on April 14 by the RACJ to suspend the bar’s liquor licence despite the change in ownership.
It describes how the previous owner was summoned to appear before the board since November 2019 on a request from the Montreal police.
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“The most troubling aspect in the case (was) the presence and the hold, by certain individuals tied to the highest spheres of organized crime in Montreal, over control of the establishment,” Marc Savard, the president of the RACJ, wrote in his decision approving the agreement.
Savard noted that a Montreal police investigator corroborated the new owner’s testimony that he has no connections with Salvatore Infantino, the bar’s previous owner, beyond the sale of the bar, and has no ties to organized crime.
Infantino is also among the names of eight people who are not allowed on the premises. During the summer of 2016, Pizzi underwent a bail hearing at the Montreal courthouse following his arrest in Project Clemenza, an RCMP investigation into alleged drug traffickers tied to the Montreal Mafia. Infantino testified during the bail hearing in support of Pizzi’s release. He described himself as a childhood friend of Pizzi’s and told the court he was surprised to learn Pizzi was alleged to have been tied to $2.3 million used to finance five shipments of cocaine that were to be smuggled into Canada.
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The charges against Pizzi were dropped a year later when the Crown decided it would no longer prosecute cases related to Project Clemenza.
Shortly after he was released on bail, an attempt was made on Pizzi’s life on Aug. 8, 2016, while he was driving along Grande-Allée Ave. in Montreal. A hit man who became an informant and testified during the murder trial of Marie-Josée Viau and Guy Dion last year said that Pizzi was among a list of people that Salvatore Scoppa, the leader of a Calabrian clan in the Montreal Mafia, had sought to have killed.
Among a long list of events the Montreal police cited when it asked that Infantino appear before the RACJ, was a dinner held on May 29, 2021, at a restaurant in Rivière-des-Prairies called Prima Luna “where several influential members of organized crime gathered for a soirée.” The gathering was held in the restaurant in contravention of COVID-19 measures. Pizzi was reportedly in attendance that night as well as Montreal Mafia leader Francesco Del Balso and longtime members of the Hells Angels.
The owners of Prima Luna are scheduled to have a hearing before the RACJ next month to answer questions about the gathering.
Other events mentioned include an arson fire set in the same building on Maurice Duplessis Blvd. in 2016, when the business was known as Café Liana, and an attempted murder on Feb. 4, 2019.
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