BIKER NEWS -- Some of the most well-known names in Montreal’s underworld were arrested Tuesday in sweeping raids. Sûreté du Québ...
BIKER NEWS -- Some of the most well-known names in Montreal’s underworld were arrested Tuesday in sweeping raids.
Sûreté du Québec Chief Inspector Patrick Bélanger said the arrests targeted “very influential heads of organized crime who formed an alliance” between the Mafia, the Hells Angels and street gangs.
Here is a description of some key people and places thrust into the spotlight by Projects Magot and Mastiff.
Gregory Woolley
Once a protegé of Hells Angels kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the Haitian-born Woolley founded the Syndicate gang in 1998. He was Boucher’s bodyguard during the violent biker wars of the 1990s, and it’s alleged he holds authority over both the Blues and the Reds — the two families of street gangs that have waged war for decades in Montreal.
Woolley (whose name is sometimes spelled Wooley) was called the cornerstone of the alliance on Thursday, described as a key link between the Hells Angels, the Italian Mafia and Montreal street gangs.
The 43-year-old has beaten three murder charges.
Stefano Sollecito
Identified by police on Thursday as being the new head of the Montreal Mafia along with Leonardo Rizzuto, son of former Mafia Don Vito Rizzuto who died in 2013.
The 48-year-old is the son of Rocco (Sauce) Sollecito, who is a longtime associate of the Rizzuto organization.
Police alleged Thursday that Sollecito had stepped in with Leonardo to fill the void following Rizzuto’s death.
In 2003, he was identified as being part of Rizzuto’s plans to expand into Toronto.
Leonardo Rizzuto
Vito Rizzuto’s son and a practising lawyer, the 46-year-old was identified by police on Thursday as the head of the Montreal Mafia, along with Stefano Sollecito.
He worked in the Montreal law office of Loris Cavaliere, who was also arrested Thursday.
His brother, Nick Jr., was gunned down in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in 2009.
Loris Cavaliere
A Montreal lawyer who has long represented members of the Rizzuto family and been seen at different Mafia members’ funerals throughout the years.
On Thursday, police said Cavaliere, 61, acted as a facilitator and moderator for the alliance, regularly providing his office for “decision-making meetings” by members of organized crime. Police said Cavaliere would resolve any conflicts that came up between the different players.
“All the crucial decisions were made in his office,” Sûreté du Québec Chief Inspector Patrick Bélanger said on Thursday.
Both Leonardo Rizzuto and his sister, Bettina, practise law at Cavaliere’s law firm in Little Italy, which was the target of a Molotov cocktail attack in September.
Salvatore Cazzetta
The 60-year-old is believed to be a leader among the Hells Angels in Quebec and one of its most influential members.
Cazzetta founded the outlaw motorcycle gang Rock Machine before joining the Hells Angels. In 1994, he was convicted in the U.S. and jailed for attempting to smuggle 200 kilograms of cocaine into Canada. He was released 10 years later.
He’s been loosely described in Montreal media reports throughout the years as controlling everything the Mafia doesn’t.
According to police, the recent investigation alleges that he took care of handling the money being shared between the so-called alliance.
Maurice (Mom) Boucher
Currently serving a life sentence in prison, Boucher, 62, is the former president of the Hells Angels’ Montreal chapter.
Boucher was heading the Nomads, an elite chapter of the Quebec Hells Angels, when Quebec’s biker gang wars started in the mid-1990s, during which more than 160 people were killed.
Boucher is now serving a life sentence for ordering the murders of Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau and for the attempted murder of Robert Corriveau in 1997, all guards at provincial detention centres. He was found guilty of the murders in 2002, and is detained at the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines penitentiary, northwest of Montreal.
Alexandra Mongeau
Maurice Boucher’s daughter, 25, was also arrested on Thursday.
Police allege the two met at the penitentiary where Boucher is incarcerated and used coded language to discuss a murder plot to have a former right-hand man of Vito Rizzuto, Raynald Desjardins, killed. Police said Mongeau would have relayed messages from her father to Gregory Woolley.
Raynald Desjardins
Once a known associate of Vito Rizzuto, Desjardins also had ties to people who challenged the Rizzuto organization. The 61-year-old is considered by police to be the leader of one of the factions that battled for control of the Mafia in 2011. In July, he pleaded guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to murder New York Mafia boss Salvatore Montagna in 2011.
Police said Thursday that Boucher wanted Desjardins dead primarily to “ensure they could continue to control the territory,” but noted that there was also “certainly an aspect of vengeance.”
NOTABLE PLACES
Cavaliere and Associates
Loris Cavaliere’s law firm, which represented members of the Rizzuto crime family, is located at 6977 St-Laurent Blvd., near Mozart Ave. in Little Italy. It was the target of a Molotov cocktail attack in September. Police didn’t comment on the act at the time.
“It was kind of used as a legal shield,” Bélanger said of the offices on Thursday. “And on a number of occasions, important players from organized crime groups would meet there on an almost daily basis.”
Vito Rizzuto’s son, Leonardo, and his daughter, Bettina, also practised law there.
Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution
Roughly 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal, Boucher has been held in the special handling unit there since 2002. The unit is generally reserved for fewer than 100 of the country’s most dangerous inmates.
This article was first published on November 20, 2015
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