Six searches were planned by two police forces early Thursday morning in the Montreal region and certain suspects believed to be associated with notorious criminal organizations were in the sights of the police.
The searches aimed at collecting evidence were launched by police officers from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in Laval, Mirabel, Rosemère and Notre-Dame-de -Île-Perrot. They followed five other interventions of this type carried out since last Tuesday in Vaudreuil–Dorion as well as in the boroughs of Anjou, Lachine and Montréal-Nord, in Montreal.
The investigation aims to elucidate several murders linked to organized crime which occurred in Montreal and the North Crown, from the mid-1990s to the present day.
The police report that they are particularly seeking to solve the murders of people who were mistakenly targeted. Among them are Lida Phon, 32, who was murdered in a residence in Laval in August 2012; Domenico Facchini, 37, who was shot dead in a cafe in the Saint-Léonard borough of Montreal in December 2012; and Nicolas Lavoie-Cloutier, 18, killed near Montée Major, in Terrebonne, in June 2018.
The SPVM and the SQ affirm that certain individuals associated with notorious groups such as the Italian mafia, the Hells Angels and criminalized street gangs are targeted by the investigation.
The joint investigation will continue and the two police forces invite anyone with information to communicate anonymously and confidentially with the police.
To watch on video