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“If they wanted to take something out on me, take it out on me. But don’t take it out on my mother. They were thugs sent by thugs.”
Author of the article:
• Montreal Gazette 
Retired Montreal Police detective Pietro Poletti. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette files
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A retired Montreal police investigator who specialized in investigating the Montreal Mafia was assaulted by three men at his home in LaSalle on Friday.
Pietro Poletti said his assailants managed to deliver several blows using blunt objects after he answered his front door shortly after 10 a.m. But he was more concerned about his 87-year-old mother, who was slightly injured in the assault but, fortunately, did not require a trip to the hospital.
“If they wanted to take something out on me, take it out on me. But don’t take it out on my mother. They were thugs sent by thugs,” Poletti told the Montreal Gazette hours after the attack. He was at a loss to find a possible motive for what happened. He required several stitches to close a wound next to his left eye, but did not have to be hospitalized.
The tires on Poletti’s vehicle, parked outside his home, were slashed and one of the men uttered “shoot him, shoot him” during the attack, but Poletti did not see a firearm. The men fled the scene in a dark-coloured vehicle.
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Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils said four men, ages 18, 21, 23 and 30, were arrested as suspects in the assault at around 6 p.m. in Longueuil near the intersection of Taschereau and Lafayette Blvds. She said the men have yet to be questioned and, if they are charged, they will appear in court on Saturday.
Poletti was a featured guest on Gangs of Montreal, a podcast series produced by the Montreal Gazette last year. Listeners posted many comments on social media remarking on his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the Mafia in Montreal and how interesting they found his sections of the podcast.
In one episode, he described how, while he was working as an investigator, a funeral wreath of flowers was delivered to his home — an apparent message from the underworld that someone did not appreciate his work as a police officer.
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In 2017, Poletti went public about problems that had plagued the Montreal police for years as false allegations were made against several investigators who specialized in organized crime. He said he also was the victim of false allegations that ruined the last third of his 30-year career with the Montreal police.
“It was 10 years of living hell. It was disastrous. I was definitely isolated,” Poletti told the Montreal Gazette back in 2017. “I probably trusted the bad guys more than the police. My biggest battles were with the police.”
![Retired Montreal Police detective Pietro Poletti in Montreal Thursday Feb. 23, 2017. He was one of the original whistleblowers on what was happening on the force's internal affairs department.]()
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![Investigators stand near the body of alleged mob boss Andrew Scoppa, who was shot to death, in Montreal, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019.]()
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