A young investigator who uses the signature stamp of a justice of the peace without her knowledge to obtain a false warrant, an undercover agent who poses as a bandit to reach Frédérick Silva at all costs, a another who becomes the client, then the friend and even the confidante of the contract killer’s spouse.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The police went to great lengths to corner Frédérick Silva, too much to the taste of his lawyer, Mand Danièle Roy, who presented a motion for abuse of process which was however rejected by Judge Marc David, of the Superior Court.
On Friday, Silva admitted that the prosecution’s evidence was conclusive in the case of the murder of a customer of a Montreal strip club, killed in May 2017, thus forgoing the jury trial he was soon to have.
He will be formally found guilty in two weeks, but in the meantime Judge David has lifted publication bans covering claims that have been debated in recent months.
After this May 2017 murder, Silva became one of the 10 most wanted criminals in Quebec. It was almost two years later, in February 2019, that he was finally arrested.
During his run, he killed three men in the fall of 2018, murders for which he was sentenced to life in prison, without parole for 25 years, after having for the first time, in the middle of a trial, recognized that the evidence of the prosecution was conclusive.
a hair’s breadth away
A week after this murder in May 2017, while following his spouse, the police spotted Silva at the Cosmodôme cinema in Laval and the members of the Tactical Intervention Group (GTI) of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) were about to intercept him. But the fugitive saw a literate police car, made several illegal maneuvers with his vehicle and managed to escape from them.
After this missed chance, the research got bogged down. The SPVM then sent a first agent to Silva’s spouse who posed as an individual from an organization that wanted to get in touch with Silva.
In August 2017, he tried, in vain, to give a cell phone to Silva’s spouse so that the latter could call him back.
He also left a wreath at her home with another phone, for the same purpose. It was rather an accomplice of Silva who called him back, summoning him to stop his efforts.
The undercover agent enters the scene
The following October, a new client showed up at a nail salon in the northern suburbs of Montreal, where Silva’s wife worked, and asked to be served by her. The current immediately passed between the two women.
But this client was in fact SPVM undercover agent AI-33 742.
In total, she then went to Silva’s house eight times for dates with the latter’s wife.
From their second meeting, Silva’s wife told her new friend about a man she would like her to meet. In order not to harm her cover, the policewoman accepted an appointment and met the individual in a café, but the affair did not have any continuation, one suspects it.
“She finds her life difficult”
The confidence was such that in January 2018, Silva’s spouse told the double agent that his situation was complicated.
She tells me that her spouse has a job that is not conventional, that he does jobs, but that she does not know which ones.
The agent doubles in his notes filed in court
“She says it’s not easy being the wife of a guy like that and she doesn’t have many friends outside of this life. She says when her spouse leaves her she doesn’t know where he is going and when he is coming back, that this has been her way of life for 20 years, she doesn’t know anything else and her spouse has always treated her like a queen. She mentions that it is not easy, because the police harass her and she is stopped 2-3 times a week in her vehicle. She says that because of her husband, some people no longer want to come to her house, including her cleaning lady. She has insomnia, ”continues the policewoman in her notes filed in court.
“She finds her life difficult. She mentions that soon, it will be a year since she has not seen her spouse, that she does not even speak to him on the phone, that she does not know when she will see him and that she is in nothingness”, notes the double agent following another meeting held in May 2018.
In June 2019, the AI, Silva’s wife and a friend of hers attended the performance of a well-known comedian. When Silva’s spouse insisted that the women take pictures with the artist, the policewoman was reluctant. That was the end of the undercover operation.
“On that last night, when she took my picture against my will, I started to think that maybe she was a little doubting me. Certainly there were limits on how she gave herself to me. I know that she was not completely open in everything she did and in her attitude, ”testified the policewoman in court.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918 or write to the postal address of The Press.
A signature stamp of a justice of the peace stolen
During the investigation to arrest Silva, an investigating officer used a justice of the peace’s signature stamp, as she was leaving her office, to obtain a false warrant, a technique rarely used by the police . This conduct was noted by Mr.and Danièle Roy in her abuse of process motion, but Judge David concluded that even if the gesture was inappropriate and raised questions, the police officer had no bad intentions and the false warrant could have been obtained otherwise anyway. The magistrate also stressed that the goal was to elucidate the most serious crimes of the Criminal Code. This case will however be brought higher by Silva, who did not admit his guilt to the counts brought against him precisely to retain his rights in the Court of Appeal. According to our information, the young policeman is the subject of an investigation by the Sûreté du Québec for allegations of a criminal nature which is about to be completed. In the meantime, he is assigned to administrative tasks within the SPVM.