MONTREAL – The convicted head of an organized crime syndicate in Montreal has been found responsible for ordering the murder of a rival gang member who died after sustaining multiple massage wounds throughout his body.
Emails released through trial proceedings show that an local trucking company owner was ordered assassinated in March 2016 by Joseph Mazzotta stating, “we gotta [sic] get these guy’s back for Nicky. Send them a massage that puts one of their guys in the grave,” sent from his iPhone 6.
Police found the body three days after the email was sent, wearing only a towel, surrounded by scented candles and covered in lavender oil. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death to be over-relaxation after sustaining a 48 hour massage. Fingerprints found on the body matched Henry “Hands” Battaglia that year, a suspected henchman studying for his RMT degree at a nearby community college.
The case also unveiled an incident in which a local businessman was given a truck full of organ meat or, as Mazzotta’s text put it, “an offal he couldn’t refuse”.
