Mafiosi, bikers, gang members; individuals of all criminal stripes came early Friday afternoon to the Loreto Funeral Complex in Montreal, to show their respect to the loved ones of Gregory Woolley, who was shot and killed on November 17.
Even before the doors of the Loreto salon, the legitimate front of the Rizzuto family, opened, the police officers of the Eclipse Squad of the City of Montreal Police Department, specializing in the surveillance of licensed establishments and the collection of intelligence on crime organized, were very present in the area of Grande-Prairie and Viau boulevards, in the Saint-Léonard district.
Each visitor who came to the show was systematically photographed by intelligence investigators from the SPVM, the Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie, the Laval Police Service and the Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service dispatched to place.
The Press noted that a few visitors were questioned by members of the Eclipse Squad.
Among the notable guests, let us highlight the presence of Leonardo Rizzuto, youngest son of the former mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto, the gang member Jean-Philippe Célestin, the ex-biker Mario Brouillette, the mafioso Pietro D’Adamo, biker and mafia associate Giuseppe Focarazzo and members of the Hells Angels, including some former Nomads, the now-defunct group led by Maurice Boucher during the biker wars.
Police also noticed some armored vehicles displaying Ontario license plates in the parking lot.
The gang leader will not have a funeral in a church.
Gregory Woolley’s remains are also expected to be laid to rest on Friday evening and to be buried Saturday morning in a metropolitan cemetery.
A targeted individual
Gregory Woolley was killed on the morning of November 17, while he was with his newborn child and his partner, in a parking lot located near the CLSC de la Vallée-des-Forts, on Boulevard du Séminaire Nord, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Gregory Woolley was killed on the morning of November 17, while he was with his newborn child and his partner, in a parking lot located near the CLSC de la Vallée-des-Forts, on Boulevard du Séminaire Nord, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
A burned black Range Rover SUV, believed to have been used by the killer, was discovered an hour later in the Pointe-Saint-Charles district, in the southwest of Montreal.
The latter has not yet been arrested and the investigation, led by Crimes against the Person investigators from the Sûreté du Québec, is continuing.
According to our sources, Woolley had already been informed by the police that his life was threatened. Last year, a molotov cocktail was thrown at his house in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and a neighboring residence was targeted by gunfire, the shooter probably having gone to the wrong house, police believe.
The armed wing of the Sicilians
Since his parole in 2020, Gregory Woolley, 51, formerly very close to the Hells Angels, was now considered by the police as the armed wing of the Sicilian clan of the Montreal mafia.
In October 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges of gangsterism, conspiracy and drug trafficking filed in the wake of Operation Magot-Mastiff, carried out in November 2015, and he was sentenced to eight years.
Woolley was also accused of plotting the murder of kingpin Raynald Desjardins but the charges were dropped.
Before his arrest, Gregory Woolley was considered by police to be one of the leaders of a mafia-biker-gang alliance that had ruled Montreal’s organized crime since the natural death of godfather Vito Rizzuto in December 2013.
Previously, he had notably been at the origin of a merger of major street gangs in the metropolis.
Woolley’s murder was added to a list of several major attacks that have occurred in Montreal’s organized crime scene since the start of the year, including the attempted murder of Leonardo Rizzuto in March, and the murder of Francesco Del Balso, former lieutenant of the Rizzuto clan who became an associate of members of the Hells Angels, occurred on June 5.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.