Mafia man Salvatore Montagna or “Sal the Ironworker” was shot November 24, 2011while walking out the door of a home in Ile Vaudreuil, a small island just five minutes west of Montreal. While in New York, Montagno worked for the Bonanno family, a household name to those familiar with the mob families and prominent construction fraud in the area. The Bonanno family is one of the five largest mafia families in New York. In the construction world, they were known experts at “inflating invoices,” i.e. overestimating the amount of workers and materials needed in order to complete large construction projects.
Montagna was born in Montreal, raised in Italy and moved to New York when he was 15. He never filed to obtain U.S. citizenship and after receiving a conviction for refusing to testify before a grand jury on illegal gambling in 2009, Montagna was deported to Canada. After keeping a low profile for several years, by 2011, Montagna was suspected of becoming part of the mafia in Montreal. He continued his New-York born construction scheme by shaking down local construction companies for five percent of their profits. His death is the continuation of a number of mafia-related deaths in Montreal in recent years and he leaves behind his wife and three daughters.