After the blow to the Blood Family Mafia last month, the authorities have carried out a major strike in the ranks of criminal bikers. An operation which should “calm things down” in the war between the two groups.
Mario “Banane” Auger, Marc “Marco” Roberge and Christian Boucher (see box) are among the arrests that occurred during the intervention of the National Squad for the Repression of Organized Crime (ENRCO) on Wednesday morning.
Photo Agence QMI, René Leclerc
No less than 70 police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) and the Lévis City Police Service (SPVL) were deployed in Quebec, Stoneham and Saint-Étienne -des-Grès, in Mauricie.
Remember that last February, “Banana” Auger went to Europe to try to resolve the conflict with the leader of the Blood Family Mafia (BFM), Dave “Pic” Turmel, without success. The same month, an erotic salon allegedly linked to “Marco” Roberge was burned down in Beauport.
Photo Agence QMI, Marc Vallières
All three face charges of offense for the benefit of a criminal organization, conspiracy, drug trafficking, possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and possession of a sum of money obtained by crime.
A timely coincidence
The SQ assures that these arrests have no link with the conflict between BFM and criminal bikers since the investigation was initiated in 2021. Nevertheless, they are timely, according to the retired SPVQ investigator Roger Ferland
Photo Agence QMI, Marc Vallières
“It will temporarily reduce the level of violence that there was in the Quebec region, as we reduced the players on both sides. It will calm things down,” he explains.
Mr. Ferland also affirms that by arresting “Banana” Auger and “Marco” Roberge, as well as several of their distributors, ENRCO struck a major blow for the region.
“They controlled almost a third of the Quebec market in terms of drug trafficking. It will make them think,” underlines the retired investigator.
Hells Angels member in good standing, Marc “Marco” Roberge, taken during the funeral of André Sauvageau, Thursday, June 20, 2019, in Montreal.
MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
A dozen other suspects
Guy St-Laurent and Frederick Lefebvre, members of the Hells Angels school club called Red Devils, are also among those arrested. In addition to these five members closely linked to criminal biker groups, the police also nabbed a dozen other suspects.
Olivier Joyal, Xavier Fortin, Alex Calvo-Quintero, Michel Bernaquez, Gabriel Simard, Jason Bard, Stacey Guay, Éric Beaumont, Anne Vigneault, Yves-Antoine Savard, Olivier Robert-Turbide and Philipe Nazon are all facing charges related to drug trafficking.
Mario Auger, member in good standing of the Hells Angels of the Quebec chapter, in 2020.
Photo Courtesy
This is a return to court for artists’ agent Philippe Nazon, who was accused last January of serious assault, kidnapping, extortion and false imprisonment relating to an event dating back to June 2023.
The authorities specify, however, that no search was carried out in this case.
–With the collaboration of the Bureau of Investigation and TVA
Who are they ?
Mario Auger
– Aged 55, nicknamed “Banana”
– Member of the Hells Angels of the Quebec chapter since May 26, 1998.
– He would have financial interests in the narcotics market in the regions of Quebec, Chaudière-Appalaches, Bellechasse, Beauce and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, according to police documents that our Bureau of Investigation consulted.
– Sentenced to 70 months in prison for drug trafficking, conspiracy and gangsterism in 2002 following the 4H investigation project where the police established that Auger had set up the first distribution network for synthetic drugs (ecstasy) Hells in the Quebec region.
– In 2019, he regained his freedom after spending nearly ten years behind bars for his role in murder plots linked to the biker war against Rock Machine. He allegedly took advantage of his detention to convert to Buddhism, according to parole reports.
– Last February, Auger apparently escaped a kidnapping attempt perpetrated by the gang of kingpin Dave “Pic” Turmel, who has been at war with the Hells Angels for a year because his traffickers refuse to pay royalties to bikers
Marc Roberge
– Aged 60, nicknamed “Rob” or “Marco”
– In 1998, during the biker war, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for having ordered the fire of a pike in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec which cost the life of a Hells trafficker three years earlier, while he was the leader of the Devils Disciples, a gang affiliated with the Rock Machine.
– In 2006, upon his release from prison, he changed sides to join the Hells Angels of the Quebec chapter
– In 2009, he was arrested in Operation SharQc which targeted all Hells Angels in Quebec but he was among around thirty alleged traffickers released from all charges two years later
– Roberge allegedly runs his own drug trafficking network in the Quebec and Bas-Saint-Laurent regions, with the help of certain members of his family, according to police documents
– “He is known in the industry as a guy who supplies kilos (of cocaine) and who has a lot of money,” ex-Hells Angel Sylvain Boulanger, who became an informer, told the police
– On February 13, an erotic massage parlor located in the Beauport sector, in Quebec, and which the police links to Roberge, was the target of an arson as part of the drug war between the gang of kingpin Dave “Pic” Turmel and the Hells
Christian Boucher
– Aged 42, nicknamed “Cricri”
– He is described as “Marc Roberge’s right arm” and is also said to be close to Mario Auger, in police documents consulted by our Bureau of Investigation
– He is listed in these police reports as one of the Hells’ “key players” in several drug sales territories controlled by the bikers, including
the regions of Chaudière-Appalaches, Beauce, Bellechasse
– Described as a “millionaire trafficker”, the police also identify him in these reports as one of the main suppliers of cocaine on the narcotics market in the MRCs of Kamouraska, Rivière-du-Loup, Témiscouata and des Basques.