Five men still at large weeks after arrests of alleged Montreal Mafia leaders in Project Alliance
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Five men remain at large six weeks after arrests were made in Project Alliance, an investigation based on information supplied to police from Frédérick Silva, a hit man who become an informant for the police.
On June 12, police arrested Stefano Sollecito, 57, and Leonardo Rizzuto, 56, the alleged leaders of the Montreal Mafia, along with nine other men who are suspects in six murders carried out between 2011 and 2021. The men arrested are detained and while Sollecito is seeking bail for health reasons, the others have courts dates scheduled in September.
Here is a list of the five men still being sought.
Sasha Stacey Krolik, 56 (becomes 57 on July 29), is charged with first-degree murder of Lorenzo LoPresti, who was killed on Oct. 24, 2011 in the St-Laurent borough. Krolik is also charged with being part of a conspiracy to murder several influential Montreal Mafia figures, including Raynald Desjardins, Moreno Gallo and Salvatore Montagna.
During Project Colisée, a major investigation into the Montreal Mafia that produced dozens of arrests in 2006, Krolik was tied to a multimillion-dollar bookmaking operation controlled by the Rizzuto organization. He controlled the operation's computers through which the Montreal Mafia received bets on NHL games and other professional sports. He was charged, under the name Stacey Richard Krolik, and in 2010 he pleaded guilty to one count of bookmaking. He was sentenced to pay a $50,000 fine.
His name was later mentioned in at least one affidavit prepared in Project Magot-Mastiff, an investigation into the Montreal Mafia, Hells Angels and street gangs that resulted in a roundup of organized crime figures in 2015. Krolik was not charged in Magot-Mastiff, but the affidavit noted he had ties to Gianpietro Tiberio, another man who is being sought in Project Alliance.
Pierry Philogène, 38, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Charles-Olivier Boucher-Savard, who was killed in Montreal on Dec. 21, 2021.
According to previous decisions made by the Parole Board of Canada, Philogène has admitted in the past that beginning from his early teens he hung around with members of a Montreal street gang and in 2004 he was stabbed during a fight with a rival gang.
A parole decision made in 2012 says he was at that point 'officially linked' to a Blues-affiliated street gang. While he was serving a 44-month sentence for a series of violent crimes, he continued to hang out with street gang members. Among the crimes for which he was sentenced was the robbery and assault of a woman he knew and tied up in her home. When the police found her, she was nude and covered in blood.
The same sentence included an armed robbery in which Philogène robbed a tourist of their wallet while holding a pellet gun to the victim's chest.
In 2014, while he was serving a nearly three-year sentence, he was stabbed inside a federal penitentiary and suffered a collapsed lung. According to a parole decision made in 2016, he was still considered to be a member of a Blues-affiliated street gang. His request for parole was rejected because he was considered to be too high a risk of reoffending.
In June, the Sûreté du Québec issued a release saying Philogène might be hiding in British Columbia, including in Vancouver.
Mario Sollecito, 54, is charged, like Krolik, with the murder of LoPresti and the conspiracy to murder several rivals of the Sollecito-Rizzuto organization. Sollecito is the younger bother of Stefano Sollecito.
In 2005, Mario Sollecito pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon and his sentence involved an unconditional discharge, which means he does not have a criminal record in Quebec. But in 2022, his name was mentioned during two separate murder trials held in Montreal.
In one during March 2022, a hit man-turned-informant who admitted he killed Sollecito's father, Rocco, in Laval in 2016 told a jury that he also did surveillance on Rocco Sollecito's sons. He specifically mentioned Mario by name.
Later in September 2022 during one of Silva's murder trials, a Montreal police investigator said police suspected Mario Sollecito was supporting Silva while he was trying to avoid being arrested.
Gianpietro (JP) Tiberio, 52, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Domenico Facchini and the attempted murder of Vito D'Orazio. Both men were shot on Dec. 21, 2012 in Montreal.
In 2007, Tiberio was part of a group of 28 people arrested by the RCMP in an investigation dubbed Operation Channel that uncovered a clandestine ecstasy laboratory north of Montreal. Tiberio was charged with being part of a conspiracy along with the drug-trafficking ring's leader.
In 2008, Tiberio pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced to a three-year prison term.
Seven years later, during the summer of 2015, Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto were being investigated in Project Magot-Mastiff when they were secretly recorded while discussing a problem that had arisen within Montreal's underworld. Sollecito referred to Tiberio as 'a liar' but appeared to be willing to let him run drug-trafficking turf in Rivière des Prairies and Montreal North.
Jean-Ismaël Zéphir, 46, is charged, like Tiberio, with the murder of Facchini and the attempted murder of D'Orazio.
Zéphir is the brother of Emmanuel Zéphir, a notorious street gang leader. In 2009, both were arrested in Project Axe, a drug-trafficking investigation by the Montreal police into street gangs and the Hells Angels.
On Dec. 15, 2010, Jean-Ismaël Zéphir pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and being in possession of the proceeds of crime. He was sentenced to time served.
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