Giovanni Presta, accused of the premeditated murder of biker Sébastien Beauchamp committed four years ago, bought 44 GPS beacons between January 3, 2016 and October 11, 2018.
Posted at 6:43 p.m.
This is the astonishing revelation that an SPVM investigator made on Wednesday at the Presta trial which began last week at the Montreal courthouse.
After Beauchamp’s murder, officers found a GPS tag under his SUV. According to the police claim, hitmen attach such beacons under the vehicles of their victims, to track them.
Sébastien Beauchamp was killed on December 20, 2018 by former organized crime hitman Frédérick Silva, who had already been sentenced to life in prison for this murder.
But the Prosecution believes that Presta was his driver that day.
When the police arrested Silva in February 2019, they also apprehended Presta, and discovered, among other things, several cell phones, SIM cards, GPS beacons, computers and silicone men’s face masks in the residences of the two alleged accomplices.
A monk’s work
Technological crime investigators from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) carried out long-term work to extract the hundreds of data contained in all the electronic devices seized.
Major Crimes investigators, including Robert Hargassner, then meticulously analyzed this data, obtained production orders from telephone companies and cross-checked the information received.
“We had quite a challenge. There was so much information generated by our tech crimes unit. SIM card numbers, cell phone numbers, and in the devices we put multiple SIM cards,” Detective Sergeant Hargassner described.
It was when they began to analyze this data that the investigators realized that there could be a GPS tag under the vehicle rented by Beauchamp, that they then found the SUV at the rental business and found the tag under the rear bumper. in June 2019, six months after the biker’s murder.
Investigator Hargassner explained in particular, roughly, that each GPS beacon, which includes a SIM card, is controlled by an administrator telephone also equipped with a SIM card.
By dialing a number, the administrator phone interrogates the GPS beacon which sends information to the device via text messages.
We understand from his testimony that the same SIM cards passed through several telephones and beacons found at Presta and Silva, or that different SIM cards succeeded each other in the same device at one time or another.
Two beacons rather than one
The police say they can demonstrate that there was not one, but two beacons under Beauchamp’s vehicle; a first, which would have been present from October 19 to December 23, 2018, and which has never been found, and the second – the one that was seized – which would have been activated on October 31, 2018 and which would have remained active until January 4, 2019.
According to investigator Hargassner, a SIM card used in the first beacon would also have been used in another beacon and two phones found at Presta.
The police also seized a receipt from the accused that would be linked to the second beacon discovered under the SUV rented by Beauchamp six months after his assassination.
At Presta, the investigators discovered seven GPS beacons in a cache, fitted in a hole drilled in the wall and concealed by a cupboard.
They also noticed that there were several packages from the Amazon company in the residence and realized that it was selling beacons. They got a production order from a judge and that’s how they learned from Amazon that it had sold 44 GPS beacons to Giovanni Presta between January 2016 and October 2018.
An SPVM technological crimes investigator, Silvio Foglietta, said that in computers seized from Presta, the police discovered that the accused had consulted 3D printer documents and photos of firearms.
They also found emails from Ebay and Amazon showing that he had purchased silicone masks and latex gloves.
In particular, Presta bought six masks in the same order, three of which were found at Frédérick Silva.
Analysis of a phone seized from Presta showed that a search was made on the evening of December 20, 2018 on a news media site reporting the news that a man had been shot in Montreal.
The trial, which is presided over by Superior Court Judge Marc-André Blanchard, continues Thursday.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the email address of The Press.