^^^^
Paul Cherry's article on this developing story will be found at the link below:

Charges to be stayed in major Montreal Mafia bust Project Clemenza
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...roject-clemenza

From the article:

Charges are expected to be be stayed against the following accused:

Hussein Abdallah, Giuseppe Arcoraci, Ali Awada, Davide Barberio, Antonio Bastone, Roberto Bastone, Mathieu Bouchard, Martino Caputo, Alberto Castronovo, Steve Cecere, Gina Conforti, Liborio Cun trera, Jocelyne Daoust, Mike Di Battista, Michele Di Marco, Sophie Dubé, Alain Duhamel, Giuseppe Fetta, Jaime Flores, Giovanni Gerbasi, Louis-Marie Hébert, Mona Hrtschan, Robert Jetté, Hicham Kachouh, Mike Markos Karounis, Michele Lanni, Fenel Milhomme, Roberto Olacirequi-Martinez, Marcello Paolucci, Andrew Michael Poux, Riccardo Preteroti, Marco Pizzi, Pasquale Silvano, Patrizio Silvano, Luigi Simeone, Jenica Teleu, Angelo Testani, Frédéric Tremblay-Cazes.

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/02/15/liberte-sous-haute-surveillance

This is the article mentioning Del Balso's release.

The following links are the news articles mentioning the names of those arrested in the police operation Clemenza.
They mention one of the cells was led by DeVito and the other was linked to the Bastone brothers. We also learned by a previous article that the Silvano brothers are in charge of territories held by the D'Amicos.
The other link mentions the the names arrested from the Sicilian cell. This is just food for thought.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/rcmp-s-project-clemenza-breaks-up-cocaine-trafficking-ring-1.2897241

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/rcmp-sq-montr...menza-1.1864820

You have to wonder if Desjardins raises hell over this due to them dropping the charges against the rest that relied solely on the intercepted messages or did I read it wrong?

Thanks Ciment, I wonder how long he has to wear it? Things will get interesting once he loses the braclet.

So have we heard anything on Arcadi?

This is what I found on Arcadi's release.

http://aboutthemafia.com/montreal-mafia-leader-francesco-arcadi-nears-prison-release

I thought Arcadi was put back in along with Del Balso once Giordano was hit? That said he must be in something (halfway house) until 2019 and still cannot associate with anyone who is thought to be in the mafia. I got a feeling things will be over before he even gets out fully.

I think the winter of '17 Rizzuto/Sollecito go on trial. If they get out then this year will get very interesting.

To compound matters it looks like Mirarchi and his accomplices may also be let out of prison in the short future.

ANALYSIS
CLEMENZA, THE SHARQC OF THE MAFIA
DANIEL RENAUD
LA PRESSE March 21,2017
On hearing yesterday of the news that serious charges against 36 close to the Mafia are being withdrawn today, former RCMP civilian analyst Pierre De Champlain tweeted that the Clemenza project, under which These people were apprehended, is the new "Italian SharQc", referring to the end in fish tail of the famous operation of 2009 which was aimed at eradicating the Hells Angels, which today are stronger than they Were.

M. De Champlain does not think so. If Clemenza, which was to be an even larger investigation than Colosseum, is now a sword in the water, the release of some thirty people will have other impacts. Several of them will give oxygen to the Montreal mafia, which is in the shambles, weakened by internal struggles for years by Operation Magot of November 2015.

Many of the individuals who will benefit from a halt to the judicial process are not choirboys. They are suspected of being major traffickers and importers with dozens, if not hundreds, of pounds of cocaine. Some of them were accused of controlling a warehouse in which a machine gun, seven submachine guns, laser scanners, silencers, bulletproof vests and explosives were discovered in February 2011 in Montreal.

Others are involved in the kidnapping of a man to whom his captors claimed 1 million and who owed his salvation only to the interception of the text messages of his torturers by the investigators and to the providential arrival of Policemen of the tactical intervention group while being handcuffed to a bed in a Napierville farmhouse.

The individuals released this morning belong to groups that have been at the heart of the Montreal Mafia war in recent years.

If they had not been killed in 2013, clan leader Giuseppe De Vito and his right-hand man Vincenzo Scuderi were reportedly accused in the Clemenza opration. Assassinated Saturday in the district of Anjou, Nicola Di Marco had been arrested and sentenced in the wake of Clemenza. Another who is due to be stopped in the judicial process today will receive his posthumously, as he was killed last January, while a fifth was the victim of an attempted murder in the fall of 2012. Not to mention Marco Pizzi, who is one of the 11 individuals who remain accused and tried to kill last summer.

WHAT ABOUT THE SEQUEL?

The decision announced today will certainly be hard to swallow for public opinion, which sees judicial judgments halt successively since the abrupt end of the SharQc trial in October 2015 and the Jordan judgment on the time limits given by the Court Supreme Court in 2016. The case of Clemenza is also frustrating for the police, some of the released individuals would have been ready to settle after the plea of ​​Raynald Desjardins, but the prosecution would not have seized the pole, we were told .

It may now be asked whether the same fate awaits the 11 individuals arrested in the last phase of Clemenza in May 2016 and still accused. Details of the technology used to intercept the suspects' text messages and their weaknesses, which would involve Research in Motion (RIM) and the United States, and which the prosecution does not want to disclose to the defense, Of the problem. If the rest of the case gives reason to the defense, then how will the fate of the remaining 11 accused be different?

It seems that the RCMP and the prosecution would not have been on the same wavelength in the management of this arm, which would have given rise to some animated discussions.

As if that was not enough, our sources tell us that the protégé of Raynald Desjardins, Vittorio Mirarchi, and his accomplices, who should receive in June their sentence for the murder of the aspiring godfather Salvatore Montagna, would not stay very long in prison.

Like the Hells Angels, believed to be moribund in 2009, the Montreal mafia will rise again.

"11 who remain accused in Project Clemenza will have a hearing in May"
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...-hearing-in-may

From the article:

Included among the people who no longer face any charges is Liborio Cun trera, 48, of Laval, a man alleged to be one of the current leaders in the Montreal Mafia. Cun trera’s father, Agostino, was murdered in St-Léonard in 2010 when the Rizzuto organization was under attack. Cun trera was charged last year with trafficking in cocaine on May 17, 2011. Another two charges that were stayed on Tuesday alleged that he and Marco Pizzi, 47, of Montreal North, conspired to traffic in cocaine during a nine-day period in 2011.

Pizzi faces charges in another indictment filed in Project Clemenza and he is one of the 11 accused who still have charges pending.

It's his own fault he pleaded guilty instead of a trial. I don't get it why it takes so long to go on trial in Quebec.

True, but that was their main evidence against him and the others. I don't know enough about Canada's laws and stuff to guess. I know the others were set to plead guilty but surely that has changed too unless they've already pled.

The Sicilia family, whose drug trafficking network was dismantled in 2015, wants to recover some of the large sums that have been seized.

http://www.lecourrierdusud.ca/faits-dive...--a-l-etat.html

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justic...mparaissent.php

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...lent-kidnapping

Montreal Mafia: Charges stayed in Project Clemenza included a violent kidnapping

http://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2017/03/28/un-restaurant-vise-par-un-incendie-criminel

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justic...de-montreal.php

Restaurant and house targeted by arsonist(s).

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/03/30/un-autre-incendie-suspect-au-mediterraneo

Another suspect fire at restaurant Mediterraneo.

Cocaine had been transported between Canada and Bahamas on more than one occasion. Two suspects so far are French-Canadians.

"Emergency landing in Ohio leads to cocaine discovery, 2 Quebecers arrested"

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...ecers-arrested/

^^^^
Paul Cherry's article has been updated. The plane carrying the coke was destined for Windsor, Ontario.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justic...78_section_POS1

An influential member of the mafia has been freed from prison.

"Judge denies request to throw out Montreal mob-related murder case"

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...ed-murder-case/

"Police break up alleged cocaine ring with ties to bikers and Montreal Mafia"

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...montreal-mafia/

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justic...-a-montreal.php

Cocaine seized in Ohio was destined for Montreal.

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/04...els-et-la-mafia

Lebanese mafia providing drugs to bikers and mafia.

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/04/12/personne-ne-veut-devenir-le-nouveau-parrain-de-la-mafia

Nobody wants the godfather job in Montreal

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/police-seek-suspect-in-fraud-scheme-targeting-elderly

Police seek suspect in fraud scheme targeting elderly

Link below is to Éric Thibault's article that was published today. It gives you a better idea of the Hells Angels' drug-trafficking activity and how much the group is earning.

Les Hells Angels «s'en sacrent»

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/04/15/les-hells-angels-sen-sacrent

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justic...eure-detenu.php

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-ne...rafficking-case

Alleged Montreal mafia leader denied bail.

Good article it updates us on the current prices and profits.
A lot money to be made in drug trafficking,that is why there will always be someone to replace them if things go bad.

http://www.grc.gc.ca/en/news/2017/18/cannabis-and-cocaine-trafficking-five-suspects-arrested

Cannabis and Cocaine Trafficking: Five Suspects Arrested

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/04/18/un-hells-en-prison-pour-une-info-non-confirmee

A former senior officer of the Hells Angels that was recently released from jail, is back behind bars because he is suspected of plotting to commit murder.

So in the earlier part of this Project Cendrier investigation, law enforcement indicated cocaine headed for Montreal got there via Los Angeles and Houston--see http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/news/2016/7...pects-arrested. The Quebecers just arrested all seem to be French-Canadian.

From the article in the thread you started a few weeks ago about the cocaine trafficking ring that saw cocaine from California going to Ontario (http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...0297#Post910297), we learned from the RCMP that traffickers shipping coke from the US to Ontario often use LA and Houston as distribution centres, "along major highways to Canadian land ports in Ontario, including Windsor, Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie." The individuals arrested in the Waterloo Region in Ontario appeared to be a mix of Greek-Canadians, Serbian- or Croatian-Canadians, and some other ethnicities.

The cocaine trade in Canada is too big to be dominated by any one crime group. Yes, there are big players. But even the big players have not been able to reverse the direction of the flow of cocaine--the US is still a transshipment point for coke that is on its way to Canada. This is why I get so frustrated when control of the Port of Montreal is cited as a reason or even the reason for the mob war in Montreal. A mob war that, incidentally, may be far from over.