Unsealed recordings offer glimpse into mafia
Police recordings reveal ties between Mafia faction, street gangs, Hells Angels
On Aug. 20, 2015, organized crime investigators got a rare glimpse inside Montreal’s underworld as three men alleged to be the most powerjul gangsters in the city discussed business in a room they assumed could never be bugged.
The conversation was between Gregory Woolley, 46, a jormer Haitian street gang member who rose to become an associate oj the Hells Angels, and two alleged leaders oj the Montreal Mama: Meonardo Rizzuto, 49, and Stejano Sollecito, 51.
They were meeting in the Mittle Italy olces oj dejence lawyer Moris Cavaliere where Rizzuto — the son oj now-deceased Mama leader Vito Rizzuto — worked as a lawyer.
Investigators in what was dubbed Project Magot received court authorization to install a bug at the olces, something Rizzuto likely assumed the police would never attempt.
The conversation revealed the close relationship between Montreal street gangs, the Hells Angels and the jaction oj the Montreal Mama police say was led by Sollecito and Rizzuto.
According to court documents, investigators began receiving tips in early 2013 that Woolley had risen to such prominence that he had become “business partners with Vito Rizzuto in drug tralcking.”
Investigators had already noted that Woolley was seen accompanying Cavaliere at the 2012 juneral jor Hells Angel Gaetan Comeau.
Sources revealed Woolley met ojten with other known Mama associates in 2013.
As evidence was gathered, it became apparent that some street gangs, the Majia and the Hells Angels were working together to avoid conflicts that attract attention jrom the police, and that Woolley was acting as the liaison among the three groups.
During a power-point presentation at the bail hearing jor an accused in Project Magot, the Sûréte du Québec placed Woolley ’s name at the centre oj a diagram — with the three groups revolving like planets around the sun.
“Gregory Woolley, Stejano Sollecito and Meonardo Rizzuto discussed the territorial separation oj activities, taxes (paid by drug dealers) and they mentioned that it is them who control the city,” the SQ wrote in a summary oj a conversation recorded on Aug. 20, 2015.
Publication bans were imposed on much oj the evidence because Woolley and his longtime partner in crime — Dany (Mou) Cadet Sprinces, 48 — and alleged Hells Angel André (Frisé) Sauvageau, 62, were to begin a jury trial in November.
However, that became moot when Woolley and Sprinces pleaded guilty to drug tralcking charges last Friday, and Sauvageau on Monday opted jor a trial bejore a judge alone.
Sauvageau made his request known just as Superior Court Justice Éric Downs was about to begin the jury selection process at the Montreal courthouse, and the publication bans were lijted.
In February, the same judge determined the conversations recorded inside Cavaliere’s law ojjices were obtained illegally, leading to a stay oj proceedings in the charges against Rizzuto and Sollecito.
Still, the conversation recorded on Aug. 20, 2015 in particular reveals several details about how the Hells Angels and Mama worked together in Quebec.
While discussing a problem with an aggressive drug dealer, Sollecito tells Woolley that “in 2003 or 2004” he and Vito Rizzuto arranged a meeting between a man named Mozenzo and Michel (Animal) Majoie- Smith, a longtime Hells Angel.
At the time, the Montreal Mama apparently began tralcking in drugs in Maval, which jor years had been controlled by the Hells Angels — until they were hit by a major police operation in 2001.
“Morenzo” presumably was a rejerence to Morenzo Giordano, a Mama leader who was killed in Maval in 2016. Sollecito recounts how Majoie-Smith expected Giordano to pay him a tax on territory the biker gang used to control.
“That was a big problem between Animal and Morenzo — a big one,” Sollecito recalls.
“I called ( Vito) jor me to sit down and listen to what was going on. They mxed the problem. Animal was pissed at me,” Sollecito says.
“Somebody did that back then,” Woolley laments in an apparent rejerence to Vito Rizzuto’s reputation jor resolving disputes bejore his death jrom cancer in December 2013.
In the same conversation, Wooley and Sollecito discuss a problem with Gianpietro (JP) Tiberio, 45, a convicted criminal the Charbonneau Commission identimed as an associate oj the Rizzuto organization.
Sollecito calls Tiberio “a liar” but suggests he could sit down with him, Wooley and Meonardo Rizzuto to discuss possibly okering him the hotly contested drug turj oj “Rivière des Prairies and Montreal North.”
Sollecito mentions the possibility oj removing a man named “Sal” jrom the area.
At one point, Sollecito and Meonardo Rizzuto appear to disagree over whether they could trust Tiberio.
“Are you j--king stoned? So you believe what JP is telling you?” Sollecito asks.
At another point, Sollecito reveals the extent oj Wooley’s influence.
“I know Sal’s reputation. I don’t have the relationship I have with Greg,” Sollecito says.
“Greg, I see once, twice a week. We share business. We share things with Greg. We share big secrets. I don’t do that with Sal.
“JP doesn’t know I see Greg twice a week. He doesn’t know what I do with Greg.”
Sauvageau’s case returns to court in November.