Recent Montreal Arrests

Mom Boucher, then head of the Hells Angels Nomads chapter in Quebec,  flashes peace sign outside a Montreal funeral home on April 21, 2000.
Photograph by: John Mahoney , Montreal Gazette

Key people arrested as part of Projects Magot and Mastiff, which examined links between the Rizzuto organization as well as members of the Hells Angels and street gangs, including The Syndicates.


Greg Wooley, arrested in November.

Gregory Wooley (sometimes spelled "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 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.



Leonardo Rizzuto arrested.

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.

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. 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.

Cazzetta in back of squad car.

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.

Audio recordings also revealed that Cazzetta was part of an arrangement to pay former Montreal police investigator Benoît Roberge to leak information to the organization.




Maurice (Mom) Boucher: Currently serving a life sentence in prison, Boucher, 62, is the former president of the Hells Angels’ Montreal chapter.

In 2002, following11 days of deliberations, a Quebec jury convicted Boucher, of all charges he faced in the shooting deaths of two prison guards.

Boucher, then 48, grinned when the verdicts were read out: guilty of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree murder.

The jury agreed that Boucher had masterminded the killings of Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau in 1997. The Crown accused him of ordering the killings to harm the country's justice system.

In June 1997, Lavigne was shot dead while driving home from work. Then in September, Rondeau was killed in an ambush while he drove a prison bus. Robert Corriveau was on the bus but escaped injury.

The trial became known for the extreme security precautions deployed. A solid screen prevented the viewing of the jury.

That was actually Boucher's second trial for the same three charges. Boucher was originally acquitted in a 1998 trial, but the Crown appealed that ruling and was successful based on the judge's jury instructions.

Wiretaps, video surveillance, and documents seized from Boucher during his arrest were presented as evidence. Two former bikers also testified.

The key witness for the prosecution was Stephane Gagne, who was involved in both murders. He testified Boucher lieutenants Andre (Toots) Tousignant and Paul (Fon Fon) Fontaine had ordered him to kill the prison guards and that Boucher later personally congratulated him.

Crown prosecutor France Charbonneau contended that the killings were intended to destabilize the justice system by making targets of guards, police, prosecutors and judges.

Charbonneau argued that Boucher wanted crimes committed by bikers that would be so serious that prosecutors wouldn't want to make deals to turn bikers into informants.

Boucher was heading the Nomads, the Quebec Hells Angels elite chapter during the MCs Quebec war with the Rock Machine, which ignited in the mid-1990s.

The Quebec biker wars resulted in more than 160 fatalities.


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 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: The Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution where Boucher and his daughter allegedly plotted Desjardins’s murder is one of the two highest security prisons in Canada.

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.


Comments