The violent conflict between an independent drug trafficker and a member of the Hells Angels of Quebec which broke out in recent months is surprising.
At the end of the 2010s, the various police forces in Quebec, and even in Canada, designated the Hells Angels as the most powerful criminal organization in the country.
According to the Sûreté du Québec, the Hells Angels currently control 85 to 90% of Quebec territory, except for a few sectors in Montreal and Laval.
Throughout the province, they count on dozens of sympathizing or subordinate clubs which look out for their interests and from which they recruit.
The Hells Angels of Quebec were able to take advantage of the weakening of the mafia, undermined by internal wars and the natural death of godfather Vito Rizzuto 10 years ago.
While the authorities’ objective was to eradicate them with Operation SharQc in 2009, they recovered after almost all of them spent at least six years in prison.
Far from the street
Two things, which deserve to be underlined, happened during these six years of detention.
Traffickers took advantage of the absence of the Hells Angels to take up space. For their part, learning lessons from SharQc, the Hells Angels have refined and changed.
From the time they started being released around 2015, they became businessmen owning their businesses. No more hands directly in drug trafficking; they are now “managers” of territories, allowing independent traffickers to sell in their sector in exchange for a “tax” or by forcing them to obtain supplies from them of kilograms of cocaine which are often more expensive than ‘elsewhere.
Several of those who took advantage of the Hells Angels’ absence for six years and who did not want to comply with these rules upon their return have paid the price since 2014.
A favorable context
But ten years later, are the Hells Angels victims of their success and the boomerang effect?
When we are so dominant, is it not inevitable that one day, individuals who find us too greedy, and who find our rules too severe, will refuse to submit to authority?
Especially if the Hells Angels, who have not had opposition for a long time, have aged and, in many cases, already have their future assured?
Also long gone are the years when they themselves held a gun, a bit like these members of younger generations of mafiosi raised in cotton wool.
The Hells Angels, who have already experienced war and prison, probably don’t want to taste it again.
And the moment for a rebellion is perhaps well chosen as sources tell us that within the Hells Angels themselves, we do not always agree on the ways of doing things, and that members of the Montreal section in already have their hands full with a bloody conflict in the metropolis around the control of the mafia sports betting.
The specter of war
According to our information, the violence in Quebec has as its background a conflict between a Hells Angel from the Old Capital and an independent drug trafficker, aided by members of street gangs from Montreal, who has decided to no longer obtain his supplies of cocaine among bikers.
Recently, a conflict between an independent trafficker and another, the latter associated with the Hells Angels, caused a stir in the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield region, and the Sûreté du Québec says it is monitoring the Saguenay and Côte-Nord regions. , where similar tensions would appear on the horizon.
Already, observers are raising the specter of the biker war – which left 160 dead and as many injured between 1994 and 2002 – but the police are reassuring and say they are monitoring the situation closely to prevent the rebellion from becoming a stain. oil.
But if history comes to repeat itself, chapters will be written this time with new ink.
Today, we must indeed count on a new generation of disorganized and volatile “contract workers”, younger, sometimes minors with a handgun, who are fearless and have no respect for the authority and life.
These may seem elusive, but the lion may not stay asleep for long.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.