Montreal's Rizzuto crime family targeted in major police sweep
Information from hitman turned informant led to raids, 150 police officers deployed
In what police are calling the most significant operation to take place in Quebec in a decade, officers have arrested the suspected heads of Montreal's Italian Mafia, including the presumed leader, Leonardo Rizzuto.
Rizzuto, the son of reputed Mafia boss, the late Vito Rizzuto is facing charges for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder involving several alleged victims.
Rizzuto appeared Thursday via video conference with a white long sleeve T-shirt, his arms crossed. He pleaded not guilty.
The charges come after nearly 150 police officers descended on addresses across Quebec early Thursday morning. They arrested Rizzuto at his home in Laval, Que., just north of Montreal.
Officers arrested 11 people in total, all men between the ages of 27 and 57.
The arrests took place in Montreal, Laval, Blainville, Shefford, Saint-Lazare, Repentigny, Quebec City and Rosemère.
Also arrested was Rizzuto's alleged co-leader, Stefano Sollecito and other prominent alleged Mafia members, Pietro D'Adamo and Davide Barberio. Five other men remain at large.
In total, seven men, including Rizzuto and Sollecito, were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder at the Montreal courthouse Thursday.
The charge sheet reads like a list of high-profile organized crime murder plots over the last 14 years. Police are alleging the men were involved in the death of Lorenzo Lopresti and conspired to kill Giuseppe Renda, Moreno Gallo, Antonio Vanelli, Joseph DiMaulo, Salvatore Montagna and Antonio Pietrangelo and Raynald Desjardins.
Desjardins is a former lieutenant in the Rizzuto crime family.
Former Hells Angels boss Maurice "Mom" Boucher, who died in 2022, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to murder Desjardins.
Three of the men arrested on Thursday on were already incarcerated. All charged pleaded not guilty.
Hitman turned informant key to sweeping raids
Radio-Canada is reporting that the information that led to Thursday's arrests came from an informant: Frédérick Silva, who is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. The charge sheets for the seven men charged with either murder or conspiracy to commit murder state that Silva was a co-conspirator for the crimes being alleged.
Silva acted as a hitman for organized crime groups and, after his conviction, began operating as an informant for police.
Francis Renaud, the head of the SPVM's organized crime unit, said the arrests targeted people with ties to the traditional Italian Mafia, biker gangs including the Hells Angels and criminal street gangs.
"The suspects arrested participated in one or multiple murders either by giving orders or executing them or as collaborators between the years 2011 and 2021," he said.
Renaud said police expect these arrests will destabilize organized crime in the province and beyond.
Marc Charbonneau, the head of the Montreal police specialized services department, said the arrests were the result of a three-year investigation that involved provincial police investigators (SQ) working alongside Montreal police (SPVM).
"The charges against these individuals will surely have a profound effect and destabilize organized crime," he said.
Since the 1980s, the Rizzuto clan has ruled Quebec after winning a crime war against the Calabrian Mafia. The Sicilian Mafia was led by Nicolo Rizzuto and was allegedly succeeded by his son Vito Rizzuto. The Mafia's area of influence extended from Quebec to southern Ontario.
Nicolo Rizzuto was shot and killed in 2010. His son Vito died in 2013.
André Cédilot, a former justice reporter at La Presse and the author of Mafia Inc., says the raid definitely marks the end of the Rizzuto crime family.
"There are no successors within the Rizzuto family, but we can't say it's the end of the Sicilian clan because there are still big players left not only in Montreal, but also in Toronto," Cédilot said.
The full list of those arrested are:
- Leonardo Rizzuto, 56 years old.
- Stefano Sollecito, 57 years old.
- Davide Barberio, 45 years old.
- Pietro D'Adamo, 54 years old.
- Michel Cliche, 54 years old.
- Patrick Gilbert, 51 years old.
- Daniele Guarna, 45 years old.
- Richard Larivière, 57 years old.
- Darius Perry, 27 years old.
- Vito Salvaggio, 50 years old.
- Nicola Spagnolo, 50 years old
These five men remain wanted:
- Sacha Krolik, 56 years old.
- Pierry Philogène, 38 years old.
- Mario Sollecito, 54 years old.
- Gianpietro Tiberio, 52 years old.
- Jean-Ismel Zéphyr, 46 years old.
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With files from Radio-Canada's Pascal Robidas