Four Years, a Hundred Bank Accounts and Forty-Five Thousand Transactions to Reach Sixteen People and Fourteen Kilos: the RCMP Charges Franco Lopez, 61, as the Alleged Head of Project Chrome, and the Sixteenth Accused Is Already Out of the Country (September 29, 2026)
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has charged sixteen people in a cocaine trafficking and money laundering investigation called Project Chrome, opened in 2022 and announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Fifteen of the accused were expected at the Montreal courthouse the same day, most by videoconference; the sixteenth is outstanding and is believed to be outside the country. Police allege the group trafficked cocaine and laundered the proceeds through businesses, and separately allege it ran an illegal gaming house in Montreal. Seized or restrained: fourteen kilograms of cocaine, more than $145,000 in cash, roughly 120 electronic devices, and six buildings placed under restraint orders, with the total value put above $9 million. Eleven of the accused are from Montreal, two from Sainte-Julienne, one from Blainville and one from Gatineau, and they range in age from 24 to 73.
The names, and what the surnames do not establish
Fifteen people are named in the reporting. Isabella Allevato, 73, Abdelmalek Belhaddad, 53, Concetta Decia, 61, Phuong Le, 31, Lucie L’Heureux, 53, Franco Lopez, 61, Johnny Lopez, 24, Lisa-Marie Lopez, 31, Pasquale Lopez, 53, Daniel Poliseno, 53 and Luigi Trozzo, 47 are all of Montreal. Richard Oliverio, 28 and Salvatore Oliverio Jr., 55 are of Sainte-Julienne, in Lanaudière. Antonio Trasante, 44 is of Blainville. Michael Trempe, 30 is of Gatineau. The sixteenth accused is not named anywhere and is described only as believed to be abroad.
Police allege Franco Lopez led the organization and that his brother Pasquale assisted him. Four of the fifteen named share the Lopez surname and two share Oliverio, which the reporting notes; what relationship exists between any of the four Lopezes beyond the two brothers has not been published, and the two Oliverios are not described as related to one another despite the shared surname, the shared municipality and the “Jr.”
Several of the surnames on this list are Italian. Nothing published by the RCMP attaches this file to the Rizzuto organization, to any mafia clan, to any outlaw motorcycle club or to any other named group, and no such label is attached here. The charge sheet is reported to include offences committed for the benefit of a criminal organization — a Criminal Code construction that requires the Crown to prove a criminal organization existed, not that it had a name in the newspapers. The organization the Crown will have to prove is, on the public record, this group of sixteen and nothing wider.
Four years of paper
The investigation opened in 2022. Searches were carried out at roughly twenty locations in the Montreal area in 2024. Charges were laid in 2026. The gap is the file: what sits between the searches and the charges is financial analysis, and the figures released give its scale. Investigators are reported to have examined about a hundred bank accounts, more than forty-five thousand transactions and some eighty thousand documents. The Canada Revenue Agency assisted, and Income Tax Act offences are reported to be among the charges.
That is the shape of a money-laundering prosecution rather than a drug prosecution. Fourteen kilograms of cocaine is a real quantity but it is not, by itself, a four-year file; it is the quantity that anchors the predicate offence. The $9 million figure and the six restrained buildings are what the four years were spent establishing.
What Cpl. Pillarova said, and what she did not
RCMP Cpl. Martina Pillarova is the only officer quoted. She said the accused held different roles in the organization, with some selling drugs and others laundering money through businesses. That is the whole of the attributed characterisation in the public record: a division of labour, described in general terms, with no individual assigned to a role except Franco Lopez as alleged leader and Pasquale Lopez as his alleged assistant.
The businesses through which the money is alleged to have been laundered are not named or described. The six buildings under restraint order are not located. The illegal gaming house is placed in Montreal and nowhere more precise. The roughly 120 electronic devices are not broken down, and nothing says what was recovered from them or whether they are the source of the transaction analysis.
No release page has been located
The reporting states that the RCMP issued a news release on Tuesday. No such release could be located on the force’s website: it does not appear in the national news feed for September 29, 2026, which carried twenty items that day and none from Quebec, and no Quebec divisional news page resolves. Every figure in this briefing therefore comes from outlet reporting rather than from a document published by the force, and the charge list in particular is a composite: the trafficking, possession-for-the-purpose, money laundering, possession and trafficking of property obtained by crime and conspiracy counts are common to the accounts, while the criminal organization counts and the Income Tax Act counts appear in two of the three and in neither of them itemised per accused.
No file or docket number has been published. No court date beyond “Tuesday” has been published. Which of the sixteen is in custody and which is at liberty is not published, and neither is the identity of the accused who is abroad, the country believed to be involved, or whether an arrest warrant has issued for that person.
Absent from the record
- The RCMP release: not located. Reported to exist; absent from the national news feed for September 29, 2026 and from any resolvable Quebec divisional page.
- The sixteenth accused: not named, not aged, not placed. Believed abroad; no country named and no warrant confirmed.
- Per-accused charges: no breakdown. Fifteen names and one composite charge list, with no count attached to any individual.
- Custody status: not published for any of the fifteen.
- The criminal organization: reported as a benefit-of-a-criminal-organization allegation; the organization is not named, described or connected to any known group by police.
- The businesses: money is alleged to have been laundered through businesses. None is named or described.
- The six buildings: under restraint order; no addresses, no municipalities, no individual values.
- The gaming house: placed in Montreal. No address, no borough, no dates of operation, no charge specifically tied to it in the published counts.
- The 2024 searches: roughly twenty locations, no dates, no addresses, no account of what each produced.
- The cocaine: 14 kg total, with no breakdown by seizure, date or location, no purity and no street value.
- Paperwork: no file or docket number, no specific court date, no unit name the force itself has confirmed.
Timeline
- 2022 — month unpublishedThe RCMP opens the investigation it calls Project Chrome, into alleged cocaine trafficking and laundering of the proceeds. No account of what generated it has been published.
- 2024 — dates unpublished · Montreal areaSearches are carried out at approximately twenty locations. No dates, addresses or itemised results are published. Fourteen kilograms of cocaine, more than $145,000 in cash and around 120 electronic devices are reported seized over the course of the investigation.
- 2022–2026 — ongoingFinancial analysis covering roughly 100 bank accounts, more than 45,000 transactions and some 80,000 documents, with the Canada Revenue Agency assisting. Six buildings are placed under restraint order; the total value of property restrained or seized is put above $9 million.
- September 29, 2026 — announcedSixteen people are charged. Fifteen are named and were expected at the Montreal courthouse the same day, most appearing by videoconference. The sixteenth is outstanding and believed to be outside the country.
- September 29, 2026 — 8:15 a.m. EasternNoovo Info publishes the fifteen names and ages. Global News follows at 12:25 p.m., updating at 4:21 p.m.; Narcity at 2:46 p.m., modifying at 5:06 p.m. No RCMP release page can be located.
Led Project Chrome. Reported variously as the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and the Money Laundering Investigative Team; the force has published no located document confirming which units carried the file.
Assisted. Income Tax Act offences are reported to be among the charges; no CRA official is named or quoted.
The only officer quoted anywhere in the record. Described a division of labour between drug sales and laundering, and named no organization.
Sources
- “Trafic de cocaïne: 16 personnes visées par de multiples accusations,” Noovo Info, September 29, 2026, 8:15 a.m. Eastern — the fifteen names, ages and municipalities, the charge list, the 14 kg of cocaine, the $145,000 in cash, the 2022 start, Project Chrome, and the Montreal courthouse appearance — noovo.info
- “16 charged in cocaine trafficking investigation in Quebec,” Global News, September 29, 2026, 12:25 p.m., updated 4:21 p.m. — Franco Lopez as alleged leader, Pasquale Lopez as his brother, the criminal organization and Income Tax Act counts, the six buildings under restraint, the $9 million figure, the illegal gaming house, and the sixteenth accused believed abroad — globalnews.ca
- “16 charged after RCMP organized crime probe,” Narcity Montreal, September 29, 2026, 2:46 p.m., modified 5:06 p.m. — the roughly twenty search locations in 2024, the 100 bank accounts, 45,000-plus transactions and 80,000 documents, the 120 electronic devices, and the quotation attributed to Cpl. Martina Pillarova — narcity.com
- RCMP national news feed, checked September 29, 2026 — consulted to locate the release the reporting refers to; it carried twenty items dated September 29 and none from Quebec — rcmp.ca
No Royal Canadian Mounted Police release on this file has been located, and this briefing is built entirely on the three outlet accounts cited above; where they differ on which units ran the investigation and on the full charge list, both versions are recorded rather than reconciled. The force is reported to have laid offences committed for the benefit of a criminal organization. It has not named that organization, and no mafia clan, street gang or outlaw motorcycle club is named here or implied by the surnames of the accused. Allegations are the Crown’s and the police’s. Fifteen people are charged and named and one is charged and unnamed; a charge is not a conviction, none of these allegations has been tested in court, and every accused is presumed innocent.