The police informed no less than 25 people, including Hells Angels, that their lives were endangered by the explosive climate of dissension between traffickers and bikers that has raged in Quebec since last fall.
• Read also: Traffickers’ war in Quebec: the Hells Angels want to avoid the worst
To see so many individuals warned by the police that they had information that they were the subject of murder plots – a notice commonly referred to as a Duty to warn – recalls the extent of the clan wars that have torn apart the Montreal mafia for around twenty years, according to sources from our Bureau of Investigation.
“It’s clear that there is tension in the air. Independents no longer respect the agreements that existed in the past, that is to say giving a fee to bikers in order to be able to operate freely in the territory. It’s the lure of profit. We hope that the tension will decrease in 2024 and we will make efforts for that,” commented in an interview the director of the Quebec City Police Department, Denis Turcotte, in a report broadcast this Friday evening on the show I on TVA.
Jean-Luc Lavallee
Origin of the conflict
The South Shore of Quebec, where several members of the Hells and their Red Devils school club reside, is also affected by the violence.
“We have had around twenty criminal events that have occurred since the beginning of September” due to this conflict, said François Dubé, director of the Lévis police.
Taieb Moalla / Le Journal de Quebec
This whole affair stems from a dispute between independent trafficker Dave “Pic” Turmel and Hells Angels Mathieu Pelletier. According to our information, Turmel would have found a GPS beacon under his vehicle at the beginning of 2023, which would have made him fear for his safety. Indeed, this device is used in particular by organized crime killers to track down their targets.
Turmel’s suspicions turned towards Pelletier, who then supplied him with narcotics.
On March 7, 2023, Pelletier’s house was the subject of gunfire. Residences, vehicles or businesses belonging to bikers were also set on fire, including the garage of Martin Gamache, currently considered the most influential Hells Angels in Quebec.
Marc Vallières/QMI Agency
The affront went beyond the limits last December when the hangout of the motorcycle club in Frampton, in Beauce, as well as the new premises of the Trois-Rivières chapter of the Hells in Hérouxville were also targeted by gunfire, two days before interval.
“The Hells of Trois-Rivières, who are not involved in this conflict, did not find it funny,” a source well connected to this community told us, adding that the Hells of the four other chapters of the gang in the province have clearly told their “brothers” in Quebec to “settle the problem”.
A close relative of the Hells killed
The violence peaked on November 27 when drug trafficker Michel “Doune” Guérin, a former Hells prospect from the Quebec chapter who was still very influential in the criminal world, was shot and killed near his home in the Charlesbourg sector.
Michel “Doune” Guérin, former leader of the motorcycle group Les Mercenaires, affiliated with the Hells Angels, was killed in Charlesbourg on Monday November 27, 2023.
Photo taken from Michel Guérin’s Facebook page.
According to our sources, Guérin was one of 25 individuals who had been warned by the police that his life was in danger. “Doune” was an “important player” whom the Hells allegedly charged with resolving disputes over sales territories and collection of royalties in the narcotics market.
Chief Turcotte confided that he did not expect the traffickers ganged up against the Hells to show so much violence.
“Going to ultimate violence through murder, no. I always remember the time of the biker wars in the mid-90s. It was excessive violence. I didn’t think we would get there in 2023-2024.”