Skip to content

Suspect to face murder charge in death of daughter-in-law of late Montreal mob boss

20230607170616-6480f3de95c8f9cf2b23345cjpeg
The Montreal Police logo is seen on a police car in Montreal on July 8, 2020. Montreal police say there has been an arrest in the brazen daytime shooting of a 39-year-old woman in a parking lot in the city's Cote-des-Neiges district in May. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

MONTREAL — A suspect in the brazen daytime shooting in Montreal of a 39-year-old woman with alleged ties to organized crime has been arrested in Ontario, police said Wednesday. 

The Crown prosecutor's office confirmed Joel Richard Clarke was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Claudia Iacono.

Jean-Sébastien Caron of the Montreal police's major crimes unit told reporters that the 28-year-old suspect was arrested Tuesday in Milton, Ont., near Toronto, with the help of Ontario Provincial Police. He said Clarke was a person known to Canadian police in relation to "a multitude of events of violence."

Iacono has been identified as the daughter-in-law of the late Moreno Gallo, a reputed mob boss who was killed in 2013 in Acapulco, Mexico, a few years after he was deported from Canada. Iacono was married to one of Gallo's sons, Anthony.

Police arrived at a parking lot outside the salon Iacono owned in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges district on May 16 to find the 39-year-old woman in a vehicle that had collided with a building and was still running. She had been shot dead, they said.

Caron declined to give details on the investigation, which is ongoing.

He said police are searching for more suspects and that further arrests are possible.

The Crown prosecutor's office says the case returns to court on July 13. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.

The Canadian Press


Looking for National Business News?

VillageReport.ca viewed on a mobile phone

Check out Village Report - the news that matters most to Canada, updated throughout the day.  Or, subscribe to Village Report's free daily newsletter: a compilation of the news you need to know, sent to your inbox at 6AM.

Subscribe