An organized crime expert says recent murders in Montreal, including the one in St-Leonard Thursday evening, with links to the Mafia, are a sign of a power struggle on the territory.

Antonio Nicaso has written several books on the mob. He says there is a fight to regain control of the territory and more violence will likely follow.

"To me it doesn't seem the victims are only on one side, and this is an indication that things are changing," he says. 

He adds everything started when Vito Rizzuto returned to Canada.

"I can't say he's the mastermind, but something happened, and continues to happen, since his return to Canada."

On Thursday evening around 6 o'clock, a 49-year-old man was gunned down outside his home on Robert street in St-Leonard. 

Reports say he was Vincenzo Scuderi, an associate of Raynald Desjardins, who is currently awaiting trial in the murder two years ago of Salvatore Montagna.