Shots were fired at the premises of the Trois-Rivières section of the Hells Angels on Wednesday, a few days after a person was killed in another premises linked to the organization in Beauce.
The biker club is embroiled in a conflict with gangs and independent traffickers who are challenging its dominance of the drug trafficking market in Eastern Quebec. One of the gangs leading the revolt is the Blood Family Mafia (BFM), whose leader is one of the ten most wanted criminals in Quebec.
On Wednesday evening, around 9 p.m., police received calls from citizens about gunshots heard on Rang Saint-Pierre in Hérouxville. “Checks were carried out and it was confirmed that shots were fired. No injured persons have been traced,” explains Sergeant Héloïse Cossette, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec.
Investigators were able to determine that the building targeted is the hideout of the Trois-Rivières section of the Hells Angels and that it was a “targeted act,” according to Sergeant Cossette. Rang Saint-Pierre was temporarily closed to traffic.
On the night of Sunday to Monday, a burned vehicle attracted the Sûreté du Québec near another premises linked to the Hells Angels, in Frampton, in Beauce. The body of a dead person was found on the premises. A member of the criminal motorcycle club was briefly detained for investigation purposes on site, but he was not charged.
Arsonists arrested in time
At the same time, during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, suspected arsonists were stopped in time by police in Lévis, on the South Shore of Quebec, one of the hotbeds of the fight between bikers and gangs.
It was a citizen who contacted local police about a suspicious vehicle on Robert-Rumilly Street. Patrol officers then discovered three individuals in possession of incendiary material who were arrested and will face various charges, including conspiracy to cause arson.
“The suspects are between 20 and 26 years old. They are not from the Lévis region, they come from outside. They are not known to us, but they are criminalized people,” explains François Gagnon, spokesperson for the Lévis police.
“At present, we cannot link this to the war between BFM and criminal bikers, but we cannot exclude it,” says the spokesperson.