A shootout in St. Leonard Tuesday that left an important figure in the Montreal Mafia and another man dead smacks of a revenge killing in an escalating power struggle within the organization, experts and witnesses say.

Agostino Cuntrera, 66, died on the street outside of John and Dino Inc., his food-distribution business on Magloire St., between du Creusot and Lafrenaie Sts., as shots erupted at about 4 p.m.

Witnesses reported seeing a black Chevrolet Impala leave the scene.

A car that matched this description was stopped by police on des Grandes Prairies Blvd., not far from Langelier Blvd. early last evening. Both men in the car were taken into custody for questioning.

The second man involved in the shooting was transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen. He was later pronounced dead. He did not have any identification on him at the time.

Witnesses, friends and family members who gathered at the scene of the shooting confirmed the other victim was Cuntrera, although police refused to confirm his identity.

One woman was overheard saying: "My boss called me in and told me to turn on the news. 'It's him, it's Cuntrera,' he said."

The scene of the shooting was tense for hours following the incident.

Dozens of police officers lined the streets and three rows of orange police tape kept the crowds far from the body while people whispered to each other about who the victim could be.

"He was known in the community, you know," said one onlooker, who refused to give her name.

"He was known as a good guy, a nice guy, this is sad."

People looked on in disbelief

as police set up a tent around the body, which was covered by a sheet, save for one foot that stuck out at the bottom.

Behind a surrounding building, several men gathered, leaning over the hoods of their cars and speaking in low

voices. One approached photographers and told them to "shoot the scene all you want but make sure no individuals here are in those pictures."

Another was overheard saying, "Blood flows soon like a smashed head on a dashboard.

The major investigations unit arrived on the scene several hours after the shooting occurred.

Cuntrera was sentenced in 1978 to five years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to murder reputed Mafia don Paulo Violi, which allowed the Sicilian clan led by the Rizzuto family to wrest control of the Montreal Mafia from the Calabrian faction led by Vic Cotroni.

A series of arrests and killings have weakened the Rizzuto crime family in recent years, experts say.

Vito Rizzuto, the reported don of the crime organization, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in the United States for racketeering.

His son Nick was shot dead in Notre Dame de Grace in December. Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law, Paolo Renda, remains missing after he apparently was abducted near his home on May 20.

Cuntrera's killing appears to be a revenge hit within the crime organization, a police investigator who probes the Mafia told The Gazette.

At the time he disappeared, Renda was out on parole on a prison sentence he had received as a result of Project Colisee, a police investigation that devastated Rizzuto's organization. The crime probe made more than 80 arrests made in 2006.

mmartin@thegazette.canwest.com

lgyulai@thegazette.canwest.com