Project Alliance
On June 12, 2025, about 150 officers from two police forces moved on eight municipalities at once and arrested eleven men said to sit at every level of Montreal’s organized underworld — the Mafia, the Hells Angels and the street gangs. The case is built, by every account, on the word of one man: a convicted contract killer who began cooperating in 2022. Everyone arrested has pleaded not guilty. The trials are only now arriving.
The Sweep
Project Alliance is a joint investigation by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). Reporting at the time put its age at about three years, which places its start around 2022. On June 12, 2025, nearly 150 officers executed arrests across Montreal, Laval, Blainville, Shefford, Saint-Lazare, Repentigny, Quebec City and Rosemère. Three of the eleven were already in custody on unrelated matters.
Police described the suspects as connected to traditional Italian organized crime, to the Hells Angels, or to street gangs, and as having played roles ranging from sponsors to executors to accomplices in murders and attempted murders between 2011 and 2021. All eleven appeared by video conference and pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder or conspiracy to commit murder. The published reports do not say which accused faces which charge in every case, and this file does not guess.
Ages are as reported on the day of the arrests.
Leonardo Rizzuto, 56 — the son of the late Vito Rizzuto; see the Rizzuto Crime Family file.
Stefano Sollecito, 57 · Nicola Spagnolo, 50 · Davide Barberio, 45 · Pietro D’Adamo, 54 · Vito Salvaggio, 50 · Michel Cliche, 54 · Patrick Gilbert, 51 · Daniele Guarna, 45 · Richard Larivière, 57 · Darius Perry, 27
The Cooperator
The investigation is built on the cooperation of Frédérick Silva, a freelance contract killer who worked for the Mafia, the Hells Angels and street gangs without belonging to any of them. Silva was arrested in February 2019, convicted on four murder counts and one attempted-murder count on January 27, 2022, and sentenced to life. Reporting says he has cooperated with police and prosecutors since 2022.
That is the structural fact about this case and the one every defence lawyer will build on: the testimony that links the accused to the killings comes from a man who has admitted to carrying some of them out. A published court-scheduling report says Silva is expected to testify for roughly three months in one of the trials.
The Accused Who Were Not There
When the arrests were announced, police named five more people they were still looking for: Sacha Krolik, 56; Pierry Philogène, 38; Mario Sollecito, 54; Gianpietro Tiberio, 52; and Jean-Ismaël Zéphir, 46. That was the position on June 12, 2025, and it has moved since.
According to a La Presse report of August 21, 2026, as summarized in our own Tiberio wanted-notice file, Krolik has been apprehended in Dubai and had not been repatriated to Quebec, and Philogène has been arrested in British Columbia. Tiberio, Mario Sollecito (thought to be in Italy) and Zéphir (believed to be in Haiti) were still at large. This file has not independently confirmed any of those statuses since.
What They Are Accused Of
Two specific charges are described in published reporting.
Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito lead a group of accused charged with the first-degree murder of Lorenzo LoPresti, killed on October 24, 2011. The same group is charged with conspiring with Frédérick Silva to murder organized-crime figures between 2011 and 2019. That is the case scheduled for the longest trial.
Patrick Gilbert is charged with the first-degree murder of Domenico Facchini and the attempted murder of Vito D’Orazio in a shooting on December 21, 2012. Gianpietro Tiberio, still sought, is separately alleged to have had a hand in ordering that shooting; see the Tiberio file for the reporting on it.
The Trials
The prosecution has been split into four trials so that no single jury faces every accused. The schedule below comes from a Canadian Press report of December 2025 and has not been re-verified against the court since. A later La Presse report, as summarized in our Tiberio file, describes the first of the four trials, of the most influential members of the Sicilian clan, as set to begin in December 2026 — a month later than the Canadian Press date for the same trial. Treat the dates as approximate.
Trial one — Patrick Gilbert. Scheduled to run from September 9, 2026 and expected to end by November 6. This file has not confirmed that it began.
Trial two — Leonardo Rizzuto, Stefano Sollecito and co-accused. Scheduled for November 16, 2026 to May 15, 2027 at the Gouin courthouse in Montreal before Quebec Superior Court Justice Yvan Poulin. Michel Cliche has sought a trial in French; the others want English.
Trials three and four. Scheduled to begin August 30, 2027 and December 23, 2027.
Standing of This File
Verified | That an SPVM and SQ operation called Project Alliance arrested eleven people on June 12, 2025; that they include Leonardo Rizzuto, Stefano Sollecito, Nicola Spagnolo, Davide Barberio, Pietro D’Adamo, Vito Salvaggio, Michel Cliche, Patrick Gilbert, Daniele Guarna, Richard Larivière and Darius Perry; that all pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder or conspiracy to commit murder; that Silva was convicted and sentenced to life in 2022.
Alleged, Not Adjudicated | Every allegation against every accused, including the LoPresti and Facchini killings and the conspiracy with Silva. The characterization of the accused as members or associates of the Mafia, the Hells Angels or street gangs is police’s, and no court has found it.
Not Established | Which individual accused faces which count, beyond the two cases described above. Whether Trial One began on September 9, 2026. The current whereabouts of Tiberio, Mario Sollecito and Zéphir. Whether the trial dates above still stand.
Update Trigger | Any verdict or plea; the opening of the Rizzuto trial; any arrest or repatriation of Tiberio, Sollecito, Zéphir or Krolik; any publication ban or severance ruling; any change to the trial schedule.
- Global News — “Quebec mob takedown: Leonardo Rizzuto, alleged mafia boss, among 11 arrested” (posted June 12, 2025): the eleven accused and ages, not-guilty pleas to first-degree murder or conspiracy to commit murder, roughly 150 officers, the 2011–2021 period, the police description of the accused’s links.
- The Suburban — “Multi-force police sweep arrests 11 alleged major crime figures” (June 18, 2025): the eight municipalities, the five people still wanted, three arrests made in custody.
- Canadian Press, via Yahoo News — “Murder trial of alleged Montreal Mafia leaders to begin next year” (December 11, 2025): the LoPresti and Facchini charges, the trial schedule, Justice Poulin, the language dispute, Silva’s expected testimony.
- La Presse — report of August 21, 2026 on the Tiberio wanted notice, as summarized in our own file. Not independently re-read for this profile.
- Gangland Files — Frédérick Silva profile; Rizzuto Crime Family, Hells Angels Canada, Montreal Street Gangs and Underworld in Exile profiles; Tiberio wanted-notice file (internal cross-referencing).