The police officers of Centaure, the Quebec strategy to fight against armed violence, arrested more than 200 individuals who are criminalized or have links to organized crime, during three separate operations carried out last Thursday and Friday, with the aim of putting them in the pressure to reduce the armed violence that is shaking Montreal and the metropolitan region.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
As they did during the previous weekend, Centaure police officers visited nearly 140 licensed establishments in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and in several municipalities on the south and north shores of the city, on Friday nights and of Saturday.
Several dozen police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), the Laval police service (SPL), the Longueuil agglomeration police service (SPAL), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and about fifteen other police forces took part in the operations.
The police, who included members of the bar surveillance and intelligence gathering squads Eclipse (SPVM), Équinoxe (SPL) and BIM (SPAL Multidisciplinary Intervention Brigade), made about ten arrests and issued about fifteen statements of offense for various reasons.
According to our information, the police arrested individuals linked to several strains of organized crime, the mafia, bikers, street gangs, including Zone 43, a clique in the Montreal-North district which is allegedly involved in several events of gunshots since the end of 2019, particularly in the northeast of the island of Montreal.
Arrested directly on the highway
While driving quietly on Highway 20 towards Montreal, around twenty Hells Angels and members of one of their supporter clubs were intercepted early Thursday afternoon, near Drummondville, by the SQ police.
The agents arrested them in the middle of the highway and asked them to pull over on the shoulder, under an overpass, to advise them that they had an eye on them in their fight against the armed violence which is shaking the metropolis.
According to our information, the Hells Angels of the Montreal section, which would be, according to the police, the most influential in Quebec and which some observers compare to the deceased Nomads of the 1990s, were outside the province this end of week, and that is why they had not yet been arrested by the Centaur strategy police.
The twenty bikers intercepted Thursday afternoon would have rode in two groups, a first in which Martin Robert would have been and a second in which would have been present Stéphane Plouffe, both considered by the police as the most influential Hells Angels currently in the world. Quebec.
A total of sixteen members of the Hells Angels and four members of the Marauders were notified by the police. A dozen statements of violation of the Highway Safety Code were issued.
On the way back, the police also intercepted members of the Hells Angels from the Trois-Rivières section.
They have also arrested, in recent days, members of the Death Messengers, school club of the Hells Angels, of several sections, and members of other supporter clubs.
The individuals linked to organized crime met by the police defend themselves by saying that they are not the cause of the shooting events that have occurred in the Montreal region for almost three years, in particular the high-capacity shootings which have increased significantly. , according to the National Enforcement Support Team firearms law (ENSALA), overseen by the RCMP.
But in the ranks of the police, it is considered that organized crime is behind the settling of scores that occur sporadically and regularly in the metropolitan area, and that it would frequently call on gang members to carry out these contracts.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.