Rizzuto, Sollecito still waiting for bail
Police allege duo arrested last month are new heads of Mafia in Montreal
Lawyers representing the people alleged to be among the more important suspects arrested last month in a police investigation targeting the Mafia and the Hells Angels are still seeking dates for bail hearing for their clients.
The attorneys who are handling the cases of Leonardo Rizzuto, 46, and Stefano Sollecito, 48, appeared before Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labelle at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday, but dates for the release hearings were not set.
Danielle Roy, Sollecito’s lawyer, said her client is sick with cancer and is scheduled to see a doctor on Monday. Depending on what the doctor says next week, Roy told Labelle, Sollecito may require a bail hearing sooner rather than later.
Sollecito and Rizzuto were among 48 people arrested or sought on warrants on Nov. 19, in Projects Magot and Mastiffs — joint investigations led by the Sûreté du Québec into drug trafficking conspiracies allegedly run by the Mafia, Hells Angels and street gangs. Rizzuto and Sollecito are charged with committing a criminal act “for the profit of, under the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization.” The pair are also charged with taking part in two different conspiracies to traffic cocaine between Jan. 1, 2013 and Nov. 16 of this year.
When they were arrested last month, Rizzuto and Sollecito were alleged to be the new heads of the Mafia in Montreal. Both are the sons of men who served as heads of the criminal organization in the past. Rizzuto is the son of Vito Rizzuto, who died of natural causes two years ago, and Sollecito is the son of Rocco Sollecito, who was revealed to have been part of a committee that took over control of the Mafia in the city while Vito Rizzuto was jailed in the U.S. Roy and Dominique Schoofey, the lawyer for Leonardo Rizzuto, told Labelle they have yet to see evidence the police gathered in their investigation.
“We’d still like to know what we are talking about in terms of evidence,” Schoofey said. The lawyers pointed out that it was difficult to set a date for a bail hearing without being fully aware of what they would hear during a hearing.
The parties agreed that bail hearings might be set to begin on either Dec. 14 or Jan. 11. The dates are expected to be chosen on Dec. 9.
Loris Cavaliere, a lawyer who was arrested in project Magot, has a court date scheduled for Friday. The attorney is charged with “participating or contributing to the activity of a criminal organization” to facilitate its crimes. Cavaliere is also charged with trafficking in cocaine, between Jan. 1, 2013 and Nov. 16, 2015, along with nine other men.