OFF THE WIRE
Police conducted a major bust of biker gangs’ illicit drug distribution and selling operations in the Montreal area Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011.
Photograph by: Robert J. Galbraith, The Gazette
After crippling the Hells Angels in Quebec over the past decade, police moved Wednesday to “neutralize” the gang’s underlings who had taken control of the biker gang’s drug operations.
Police arrested 25 people in a sweep in Montreal and across the South Shore. Most of those picked up are Hells Angels associates alleged to have run three drug trafficking cells since a police task force arrested almost all of the Hells Angels full-patch members in Quebec in 2009.
“They’re the people who took the place that had been left by bikers arrested following (police raids in 2001 and 2009),” said Sûreté du Québec Lt. Guy Lapointe.
Four hundred officers from the Sûreté du Québec, Montreal police, the RCMP and several other local police departments carried out 52 search warrants in 25 municipalities in Montreal and the South Shore.
Police seized more than $300,000 in cash, eight kilograms of cocaine, 24 firearms and other quantities of drugs in a sweep dubbed Operation Carcan.
Police also arrested underlings alleged to have been involved in a fourth drug trafficking network in New Brunswick.
Most of the Quebec suspects were arraigned Wednesday afternoon by video-conference at the Longueuil courthouse. They face various charges, including drug trafficking, gangsterism, conspiracy and possession of weapons.
One of those arrested was Marc-André Lachance, who was charged last month in connection with the assault of an off-duty Montreal police officer in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen in January.
Lachance, 28, and another Hells Angels associate, Shane Kenneth Maloney, were charged with intimidating a peace officer and conspiracy.
The vacationing police officer was badly beaten up at a bar in the resort town near Cancun.
Over the past 10 years, two major police investigations have brought the Hells Angels in Quebec to their knees. In 2001, Operation Springtime took flamboyant kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher and other members of his Nomads chapter off the streets. In 2009, Operation SharQc netted 130 members of the Hell’s Angels, including almost all of the full-patch gang members left in Quebec, and several associates.
However, last June, a judge released 31 of the suspects in the mega-trial because he didn’t feel they could be tried within a reasonable time frame.
Despite Wednesday’s arrests, police acknowledged that other criminals probably will step forward to fill the newly-created void.
“We are going to keep cracking down on people who try to take that part of the market,” Lapointe said, adding that seven police forces were involved in the investigation.
Yves Lavigne, an author who has written several books about the Hells Angels, said Quebec police have to be commended for the way they have relentlessly pursued the biker gang.
“They get the crown prosecutors involved from the very beginning of the investigation and that minimizes the mistakes,” Lavigne said. “Quebec is the only place in the world where almost every Hells Angel has been in jail over the past decade.”
kwilton@montrealgazette.com
Police arrested 25 people in a sweep in Montreal and across the South Shore. Most of those picked up are Hells Angels associates alleged to have run three drug trafficking cells since a police task force arrested almost all of the Hells Angels full-patch members in Quebec in 2009.
“They’re the people who took the place that had been left by bikers arrested following (police raids in 2001 and 2009),” said Sûreté du Québec Lt. Guy Lapointe.
Four hundred officers from the Sûreté du Québec, Montreal police, the RCMP and several other local police departments carried out 52 search warrants in 25 municipalities in Montreal and the South Shore.
Police seized more than $300,000 in cash, eight kilograms of cocaine, 24 firearms and other quantities of drugs in a sweep dubbed Operation Carcan.
Police also arrested underlings alleged to have been involved in a fourth drug trafficking network in New Brunswick.
Most of the Quebec suspects were arraigned Wednesday afternoon by video-conference at the Longueuil courthouse. They face various charges, including drug trafficking, gangsterism, conspiracy and possession of weapons.
One of those arrested was Marc-André Lachance, who was charged last month in connection with the assault of an off-duty Montreal police officer in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen in January.
Lachance, 28, and another Hells Angels associate, Shane Kenneth Maloney, were charged with intimidating a peace officer and conspiracy.
The vacationing police officer was badly beaten up at a bar in the resort town near Cancun.
Over the past 10 years, two major police investigations have brought the Hells Angels in Quebec to their knees. In 2001, Operation Springtime took flamboyant kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher and other members of his Nomads chapter off the streets. In 2009, Operation SharQc netted 130 members of the Hell’s Angels, including almost all of the full-patch gang members left in Quebec, and several associates.
However, last June, a judge released 31 of the suspects in the mega-trial because he didn’t feel they could be tried within a reasonable time frame.
Despite Wednesday’s arrests, police acknowledged that other criminals probably will step forward to fill the newly-created void.
“We are going to keep cracking down on people who try to take that part of the market,” Lapointe said, adding that seven police forces were involved in the investigation.
Yves Lavigne, an author who has written several books about the Hells Angels, said Quebec police have to be commended for the way they have relentlessly pursued the biker gang.
“They get the crown prosecutors involved from the very beginning of the investigation and that minimizes the mistakes,” Lavigne said. “Quebec is the only place in the world where almost every Hells Angel has been in jail over the past decade.”
kwilton@montrealgazette.com
