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After a brief lull, blood is being spilled in Montreal’s underworld.

A homicide and an attempted murder in recent weeks are raising questions about the turmoil in the Montreal Mafia.

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The Montreal Gazette asked Pierre de Champlain, a former RCMP intelligence analyst and author of books about organized crime, what is fuelling the violence and what lies ahead for the Mafia, the Hells Angels and local street gangs, which police say have been working together to control drug trafficking in Montreal.

Here are his responses, which have been edited and condensed for space:

Montreal Mafia

The situation is becoming more and more complex and difficult to follow. I’m pretty sure the police and investigators are all perplexed, too. It’s explosive and anything can happen. I’m convinced that many Montreal mafiosi are very nervous, wondering, “Am I going to be next?”

What we can take from this is that no one has succeeded in standing out as the uncontested new leader of the Mafia since the death of Vito Rizzuto in December 2013. Nobody has been able to bring together all the Mafia clans in Montreal. There’s definitely no emerging leader — that’s why the situation is unstable and volatile.