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Nine men face charges in indictments that were made public at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday.

Theus and Lufia and two other men — Elvis Comoe, 28, and Kens Emmanuel Noel, 26 — were charged in connection with three arson fires that were set in Montreal and Laval between Dec. 12 and April 25. The last fire was set at the Complexe Funéraire Loreto, a funeral home in St-Léonard that has been owned by relatives of now-deceased Montreal Mafia leader Vito Rizzuto for decades. It is now owned by Charlie Renda, the son of Paolo Renda, Rizzuto’s brother-in-law who disappeared without a trace in 2010. All four men are accused of having plotted the fire at the funeral home over the course of 11 days before it was set.

The other arson charges involve fires that were set at buildings owned by other people with known ties to the Rizzuto organization. One fire, on Jan. 5, caused considerable damage to a hair salon owned by the wife of Carmelo (Mini-me) Cannistraro, a man who, in 2011, pleaded guilty to charges related to a multi-million dollar bookmaking ring he ran with the support of the Rizzuto organization. Sollecito in particular financed the bookmaking operation when it was in operation. The other fire, on Dec. 12, was set at a building on Maurice Duplessis Blvd. in Rivière-des-Prairies owned by Marco Pizzi, 47, a man who is facing drug trafficking charges in an RCMP investigation into people with alleged ties to the Mafia in Montreal. The cases against all four men are scheduled to return to court on June 19 for a formality hearing.

Another charge sheet made public on Thursday alleges Theus, Comoe and two other men — Pawel Platcha and Leeroy Abraham, both 25 — carried out a home invasion in St-Calixte, a town 80 kilometres north of Montreal, on March 17. A woman was assaulted during the robbery and, based on the charges, it appears the men made off with flat-screen televisions.

pcherry@postmedia.com