RCMP operation targets 'a suspected Montreal criminal organization' (2024)

Nearly 400 police officers were deployed Tuesday morning in Montreal as the RCMP launched what it described as a “major operation” targeting “a suspected Montreal criminal organization.”

“The RCMP is undertaking a massive police operation in Montreal and the area. We’re executing 20 search warrants at four businesses, 16 (residences) and two vehicles,” RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier said.

Article content

The investigation involves the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a joint task force led by the Mounties.

Poirier said the RCMP’s crime investigators were also on the scene, as well as investigators from the Canada Revenue Agency and the Montreal police.

Among the four businesses targeted were three bars in northern Montreal and a construction company on 9th Ave.

“We are targeting a specific criminal organization that allegedly dabbles in cocaine trafficking, money laundering and illegal gambling. The organization operates in this area in (northern) Montreal. That’s why we have 400 RCMP officers on the ground today,” Poirier said.

While Poirier declined to name the organization, it appears to be an independent clan within the Montreal Mafia. The construction company on 9th Ave. that was searched Tuesday, Les entreprises Frajo Inc., is owned by Franco Lopez, 59, part of a group of brothers who were arrested in 2015 in Project Magot-Mastiff. They were charged in 2015 with drug trafficking, conspiracy to traffic in drugs and possession of money obtained through crime.

Article content

Article content

The charges filed against Franco Lopez and his brothers Giuseppe and Pasquale were ultimately placed under a stay of proceedings at the Montreal courthouse on Oct. 10, 2019. Several hearings at the Montreal courthouse that led up to the stay of proceedings being ordered were held behind closed doors. One court decision made in the case revealed that the prosecution was late in divulging evidence concerning an informant who was key to parts of the Magot-Mastiff investigation. The informant’s name is under a publication ban.

According to another court decision delivered in Magot-Mastiff, when alleged Montreal Mafia leader Leonardo Rizzuto was arrested in the same roundup in 2015, police found a $20 bill inside his home that had been marked for a transaction through which the informant purchased 12 kilograms of cocaine, allegedly from the Lopez brothers.

Giuseppe Lopez, Franco’s twin brother, was killed in the Dominican Republic in September.

On Tuesday, the RCMP had a command post set up on Fleury St. E. at J.J. Gagnier St., where two of the bars — Bar Ciro’s and Lily’s — are located across the street from each other.

Article content

The window of Lily’s was smashed in Tuesday morning because a SWAT team was used to make what Poirier called “a dynamic entry.”

“We’re looking for evidence of cocaine trafficking, money laundering and illegal gambling (at the two bars). Those locations are related to the alleged criminal organization,” Poirier said, adding 13 people had been arrested to be questioned.

The area surrounding the two bars was humming with activity Tuesday as investigators went in and out of Bar Ciro’s and a dog handler walked along Fleury St. E. with a dog on a leash.

Some of the suspects were brought to RCMP headquarters and others were brought to a Montreal police location.

Poirier said it was unlikely anyone would be charged on Tuesday “because we are right in the middle of the investigation.”

“However, depending on what is found on those locations, we might have to (charge someone), but that is not the plan today.”

One of the three bars targeted in Tuesday’s search warrants, Bar Brandy on St-Michel Blvd., had its licence to operate suspended by the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux for two weeks in 2022 for failing to follow COVID-19 measures imposed by the Quebec government during the pandemic.

pcherrry@postmedia.com

Article content

Article content