This past week we had a police sweep in Quebec City, targeting the Hells Angels Quebec City chapter with 16 arrests made. The day before, we had a sweep of 13 arrests made on the Montreal Mafia and their associates. Nearly 400 police officers were necessary for this operation. Even earlier this week we had Roberto Scoppa, the remaining Scoppa brother, who had passed in court, claiming that he wanted to live a quiet life, after being arrested in an international drug smuggling bust that included hundreds and hundreds of kilos of drugs seized. Is this sweep related to the Operation Dead Hand in January of this year? It is yet to be determined. It might also have to do with Frederick Silva, informing on organized crime secrets to the cops.
The RCMP came knocking at the door Tuesday morning. The reason why nearly 400 different officers were necessary is to execute the warrants at the same time, in different places to prevent warnings to spread throughout the mob. 4 businesses and 12 residences where raided, along with 2 vehicles being searched. Most of these establishments where located in Montreal-North and Saint-Leonard, while the residences were located in Blainville, Sainte-Julienne and Labelle.
Lily’s was one of the restaurants targeted in the sweep. Le Café Da Ciro was also targeted, located on 2905 Fleury Street Est. The two other establishments included Bar Café Brandy, located on 9070 Boulevard Saint-Michel and Entreprise Frajo located on 9th Avenue. 5 of these 13 arrests were women, detained at the RCMP station in the Westmount borough of the city.
The head of the clan, Serafino Oliverio, was not arrested in the sweep. Although two Lopez brothers had been arrested, Franco and Pasquale Lopez. The two brothers Lopez had been equally arrested in 2015 in efforts of Operation Magot and Operation Mastiff, two operations set forth to cripple the mafia and biker organizations in which Gregory ‘Picasso’ Woolley had also been arrested and convicted. This was a combined operation in which one was meant to cripple the money-making aspect and the other, the drug-trafficking aspect. The brothers had been released from prison in 2019.
The Magot-Mastiff operation had targeted the Lopez brothers in supplying the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area of Montreal with around a dozen kilograms of cocaine. This had included Pasquale and Franco’s other brother, Guiseppe, who had been shot to death in the Dominican Republic in September of 2023. Guiseppe’s nickname was ‘Joe’, and was also Serafino Oliverio’s nephew.
A criminal arson had taken place in 2018 aimed at a Montreal-North business which belonged to the Lopez brothers. There was also criminals arsons which took place in 2020 aimed at the brothers. The current arrests had been made in relation to drug-trafficking, cocaine, and also illegal gambling.
