Nearly 400 RCMP police officers were mobilized Tuesday morning in a major operation targeting a Montreal mafia clan. According to our information, it is the Lopez-Oliverio family clan, suspected by the authorities of being involved in cocaine trafficking, money laundering and illegal gambling.
The RCMP executed around twenty search warrants in four businesses, 16 residences and two vehicles. The targeted locations are mostly in the Montreal-North and Saint-Léonard sectors, but two searches took place in residences in Lanaudière and the Laurentians.
The major operation stems from an investigation by the Joint Organized Crime Investigation Unit, in collaboration with the Joint Proceeds of Crime Unit and the Canada Revenue Agency, called Chrome and initiated in 2022.
“We are talking about high-level organized crime. This is a suspected criminal organization which is linked in particular to the trafficking of illegal substances, illegal gambling and money laundering,” said the spokesperson for the police force, Sergeant Charles Poirier. The authorities did not go easy: 400 RCMP police officers were deployed, as well as four intervention groups (GTI) from different provinces, to allow simultaneous strikes.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Bar Ciro’s, on rue Fleury Est, was also visited by the police.
The major operation began early Tuesday morning. Around 8 a.m., 13 individuals, including at least 5 women, were arrested. They are currently being held at RCMP headquarters in Westmount.
No less than four tactical intervention groups (GTI) from the RCMP from four provinces intervened, breaking down a few doors, including the GTI from Division C (Quebec).
According to our sources, it is unlikely that the arrested individuals will appear in court in the coming days. “We are in the middle of an investigation. Searches are underway to try to provide evidence,” said Charles Poirier.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Lily’s Bar on Fleury Street East received a visit from the police early Tuesday morning.
According to our information, the strikes would target the Lopez-Oliverio family clan. The patriarch of the clan, Serafino Oliverio, is not believed to be among those arrested. Oliverio was the target of a spectacular attempted murder in front of his home, in the northeast of Montreal, in November 2021.
His nephew, Giuseppe Lopez, was killed last year in the Dominican Republic, where the family owns several properties.
Arrested in 2015
Giuseppe, his twin brother Franco and their other brother, Pasquale, were arrested for cocaine trafficking in November 2015, following the Magot-Mastiff investigation through which the Sûreté du Québec decapitated a mafia-biker-gang alliance who led Montreal organized crime at the time.
During the investigation, the sleuths listened to and followed several suspects, including Giuseppe Lopez and his brothers, and used an undercover civilian agent through whom the police were able to see that the clan had supplied a dozen kilograms of cocaine to a trafficker from the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district when it was out of stock.
In a 400-page summary of the Magot-Mastiff investigation filed in court, it is written that ACI was allegedly involved in a transaction worth nearly $700,000 with the Lopez brothers in the summer of 2014.
The Lopez brothers, however, benefited from a stay of proceedings in October 2019.
Several establishments
The Lopez family owns several buildings and licensed establishments in the northeast of Montreal and some of them have been targeted by arson in recent years, including a restaurant considered by the police to be the clan’s headquarters, on Boulevard Gouin. Vehicles belonging to family members and relatives were also targeted by arsonists.
Two of these establishments, located on rue Fleury, near rue J.-J.-Gagnier, were searched Tuesday morning, notably with the help of an SPVM dog handler.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
A dog handler from the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) and his animal assisted RCMP investigators during their searches.
UMÉCO investigators also searched the premises of a construction company belonging to the family, Les Entreprises Frajo inc, located on 9e avenue, in Montreal.
In 2018, a building housing a business belonging to the Oliverio-Lopez family in the north of Montreal caught fire when a fire – likely accidental – broke out in cryptocurrency servers installed in the basement.