Translated from French
SPVM investigators on Wednesday morning arrested several suspects suspected of having been part of a cocaine traffickers network which operated in particular on the Plateau-Mont-Royal, under the authority of a veteran of the biker war.
According to the SPVM, eleven people were arrested. The arrest warrants filed at the Montreal courthouse mainly state charges of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy for trafficking.
According to our information, investigators consider that the network would have been controlled by Jean-Guy Bourgouin, a former member of the Rockers, the late Hells Angels school club, very active during the biker war which left 160 dead and 160 wounded in Quebec. between 1994 and 2002.
Bourgouin was arrested on December 10 and accused of possession of a weapon during a first phase of the investigation, called Renouveau and conducted by investigators from the Organized Crime Division (DCO) of the SPVM. The police had found at his home, in Mascouche, a semi-automatic pistol assembly of the Glock type.
Strong hands to rule out competitors
According to our information, the investigation concerned the distribution of cocaine on the Plateau-Mont-Royal in Montreal, but also the supply of kilograms of cocaine to criminal organizations in the metropolitan region and eastern Quebec. Searches have also taken place in Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie, according to the SPVM, which says in a press release that the file has a provincial scope.
According to our sources, the organization struck on Wednesday would have been able, during a certain period of the investigation at least, to deal between 10 and 20 kilograms of cocaine per week. In its press release, the police force claims to have seized 20 kg of cocaine worth $ 1.4 million on the market, 218,000 methamphetamine tablets and various amounts of Xanax, mescaline and other narcotics. Two firearms, an electric pulse pistol, brass knuckles, ammunition of various caliber and bulletproof vests were also seized, as were nearly $ 800,000 in cash.
It seems that during the investigation, the police observed that the traffickers had called in teams of swindlers to drive out competing vendors from certain territories.
Weapons, money and drugs seized during Operation Renewal
During searches carried out in June and December 2020, the sleuths allegedly got hold of several kilograms of cocaine, various quantities of other drugs and large sums of money. Some suspects had been arrested during these previous phases, but had been released pending the final sweep which is likely to occur today.
Police suspect that Jean-Guy Bourgouin’s organization has been controlling the Plateau-Mont-Royal sector for years with regard to the distribution of cocaine and that it would work with several cells, one of which has been dismantled. in 2019.
Among the accused on Wednesday we find a certain Jonathan Papillon, from Terrebonne, Alexandre Desgagné, from Montreal, Samuel Fagnant, from L’Épiphanie, Mélyssa Paquet-Dugas, from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Adam Ladrie, from Montreal , Daniel Tremblay, from Montreal, Pascal Dubuc, from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Charles Desrochers, whose city of residence has not been specified at this stage.
“Psychopaths”
Jean-Guy Bourgouin is the former vice-president of the Rockers, a club very close to the Hells Angels Nomads, formerly managed by Maurice Boucher.
In 2000, towards the end of the biker war, it was recorded while explaining to an interlocutor how some wannabes were desperate to obtain their “patches” from the Hells Angels. “They all want to ride, guys, it doesn’t look like that, at one point there, criss, listen, it’s fine there, it’s a gang of minds. Moé in my book à moé, they are psychopaths, ”he said on the recording broadcast in court.
Three and a half years ago, Jean-Guy Bourgouin was targeted by an attempted murder. An individual shot him as he was leaving a restaurant in the borough of Saint-Léonard, after having shared a meal with a member of the Hells Angels and an associate of the latter.
At the same time, relatives of Bourgouin would have had contracts on their heads, the police having even learned that under the vehicle of one of them, a GPS device had been stuck, of the same type as those used by the police. contract killers to find out the whereabouts of their target.
