Claude Gauthier, a member of the Hells Angels, controlled a large drug-trafficking network in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu for nine months.
A long-time member of the Hells Angels was sentenced Friday to an overall prison term of nine years for his leading role in a drug-trafficking network that operated in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Claude Gauthier, 53, a full-patch member of the biker gang’s chapter in Trois-Rivières, has more than five years left to serve. He had been detained for exactly two years while awaiting the outcome of his case and served some of that time under lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quebec Court Judge Claude Leblond factored in Gauthier’s time spent in lockdown when he calculated an equivalent of the time the Hells Angel should be credited against his overall sentence. It total, Gauthier was credited with 1,290 days against his overall sentence.
During sentencing arguments held in February, prosecutor Marie-France Drolet asked Gauthier be sentenced to an overall prison term of 12 years. She argued Gauthier chose the life of being a member of a notorious outlaw biker gang and noted he has been a Hells Angel for two decades now.
Defence lawyer Annie Lahaise suggested a six-year prison term was more appropriate and highlighted the pandemic lockdown at the jail where Gauthier was detained.
Lahaise also argued Gauthier’s role in the network was similar to that of Stéphane Maheu and Michel Langlois. Both are members of the Hells Angels and were arrested in a similar investigation dubbed Project Objection. Unlike Gauthier, they pleaded guilty in their respective cases. Langlois was sentenced to a prison term of four years and 10 months and Maheu is still serving his six-year prison term.
“The Court considers that with the ensemble of aggravating factors and the lack of mitigating factors and, notably the role played by the accused, a sentence of nine years is fair and appropriate,” Leblond said.
With time served factored in, the judge reduced the five-year sentence Gauthier received for the drug-trafficking-related charges to a little more than 17 months. He also ordered Gauthier serve the four-year sentence he received for gangsterism be served consecutive to the others. With the gangsterism conviction, Gauthier is required to serve half his sentence before he is eligible for parole as opposed to the standard period of one-third.
Gauthier was arrested in April 2019, along with 32 other people as part of Project Orque, an investigation by the Escouade nationale de répression du crime organisé (ENRCO). On the day they were arrested, the Sûreté du Québec identified both Gauthier and Pascal Facchino as being members of the Hells Angels’ chapter based in Trois-Rivières. They were also alleged to be the heads of the drug-trafficking ring based in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu active between May 2018 and January 2019.
On the day arrests were made, ENRCO seized two kilograms of cocaine and more than 27,000 methamphetamine pills.
While the investigation was centred on St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, it also uncovered drug-trafficking activities in Montreal and and the Outaouais region.
On Nov. 18, Leblond found Gauthier guilty of four charges; drug trafficking, conspiracy, gangsterism and possession of the proceeds of crime.
Facchino, 46, ended up pleading guilty to three of the charges filed against him in Project Orque and he was sentenced on March 4, 2020, to an eight-year prison term.
The prosecution’s theory in Gauthier trial was the Hells Angels in Quebec share drug-trafficking turf across the province and charge drug dealers “rent” or a “tax” for the privilege to sell on their turf. During the investigation, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu was under the control of the biker gang’s Trois-Rivières chapter and Gauthier was in charge of it.
Facchino worked underneath Gauthier and handed off cash collected from dealers to him. ENRCO gathered evidence Gauthier and Facchino met at least nine times while they were being investigated. Facchino was secretly recorded handling money before each meeting.
While he was under police surveillance, Facchino used his mother’s home as a place to hide the money he collected. Between Sept. 11 and Oct. 17, 2018, investigators managed to slip undetected into the woman’s home three times and found a total of more than $58,000 in cash hidden in cases for musical instruments.
ENRCO investigators also managed to install a camera inside Facchino’s car. It recorded how, on at least one occasion, Facchino drove to Gauthier’s residence and handled a large amount of money inside his car before he headed inside Facchino’s home.
