November 19, 2015, Sûreté du Québec headquarters, rue Parthenais, Montreal
- It's an important day for you, Greg! Probably the one that will have the most impact in your life. I can tell you that from today your life will change completely. Gregory Woolley sketches a barely perceptible smirk on hearing Detective Sergeant Steve Girard give him this warning in a tone yet quite convincing. Two hours earlier, the influential gangster was dragged out of bed by a group of police who came to apprehend him at his home. In total, four autopatrols were mobilized, each identified with one of the police forces participating in this large-scale operation: the Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal and the Service de la Ville de Montréal. of the Longueuil agglomeration. Woolley was then escorted to Sûreté du Québec headquarters on Parthenais Street in Montreal while police searched his residence in Saint-Hubert. This morning, the ex-Hells Angels henchman, who many now call "the black godfather" of street gangs in Montreal, was not the only one leaving his home in handcuffs. About 40 other suspects, including heads of the Montreal mafia and members of the Hells, are also targeted in this large-scale crackdown.
It's 8:15 am Woolley has spent the last 60 minutes, eyes closed, slumped in an office chair, when Sergeant Girard walks into the small, gray-walled interrogation room where silence reigned. The 43-year-old is dressed in a white t-shirt and jogging pants; he does not even sit up when the investigator asks him to sit "properly". Visibly sleep deprived, he casually supports his head with his right hand, while the rest of the body is leaning against a small table that separates him from the policeman. His body language is unambiguous: Woolley doesn't want to hear from the investigator. While trying to stay calm, he remains silent as a carp when Girard asks him questions. Worse, pretending to ignore it, he does not even deign to look in the direction of the policeman, who is to his right. Woolley remained behind bars between 2000 and 2011 for conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism, and he now faces those same charges. But he has seen others.
During the 1990s, during the time of the biker wars, the leader of the Hells Angels, Maurice "Mom" Boucher, recruited this member of a street gang to make him one of the henchmen of this criminal gang. According to the internal rules of the Hells, no black can be admitted as a member in good standing of the "big club". However, in the summer of 1998, four days after being acquitted of the murder of a trafficker linked to their rivals Rock Machine, Woolley still obtained his "patches" as a member of the Montreal Rockers, the dreaded club-school of the Hells. . A few years later, Woolley was charged with another murder, that of Pierre Beauchamp, a Rock Machine cocaine supplier. On December 20, 1996, Beauchamp was killed at close range while driving his minivan on Sainte-Catherine Street, then busy due to Christmas shopping. The Crown believed it had irrefutable proof of the accused's guilt. Woolley’s DNA was found in a fisherman’s hat found in a trash can at the Bonaventure metro station, in which the Montreal police also found a gun identified as the murder weapon. But the police officer tasked with documenting the evidence-gathering at the scene was a recruit, on his very first career murder case. He not only made several rookie mistakes, but he also lied under oath during the trial, in order to cover up his mistakes. Citing the fabrication of evidence thesis, the defense asked the jury to find Woolley not guilty. All the more so since no fingerprints could be identified on the gun and no eyewitnesses were able to incriminate the accused. Woolley had again been acquitted.
On that rainy and windy morning of November 19, 2015, Sergeant Girard occasionally continues to ask questions of what he simply calls Greg. But he receives no response from her. Obviously, Woolley, who is known to the police for not being talkative with them, will still live up to his reputation and remain silent. So Girard will speak. It's still early days anyway, and there's no rush until Woolley's scheduled afternoon appearance. Sergeant Girard is not the first to come to the investigation of murders and murder plots. In addition, he knows a little about the world of organized crime. He notably participated in the Baladeur investigation project, following which Gérald Gallant, the contract killer of the enemies of the Hells Angels during the biker war, became an informer, admitted to being the author of 28 murders, in addition to denounce the sponsors and accomplices of his crimes. Investigator Girard also arrested the boss Raynald Desjardins in December 2011 for a murder plot targeting Salvatore Montagna, an aspiring patron of the Montreal Mafia. A few months earlier, Desjardins had survived a flurry of projectiles fired in his direction with an AK-47 machine gun. Desjardins, who suspected Montagna to be behind the attack, admitted his guilt the previous summer and is still awaiting sentence as Girard attempts to cook Woolley. This is good: Raynald Desjardins will be mentioned during this questioning which will have quite a long monologue.
Girard takes his time, even if Woolley would prefer to get it over with as soon as possible. Dressed in a purple shirt, dark gray pants, and a black tie, the sergeant brought his chair up to Woolley's. The two men, who both have shaved heads, are very close to each other. Their knees are almost touching. Sometimes Woolley has his eyes riveted on the ground, sometimes he looks straight ahead, never meeting the policeman's gaze. Girard, on the contrary, does not take his eyes off him for a moment. He speaks to her in a measured but firm tone, while frantically chewing on an eraser. The investigator has placed a laptop on the small table, but he does not need it at this time. "We showed up at your place this morning at 6 am," Girard told him, starting to explain to Woolley how and why he found himself confined against his will to a police station rather than lying in bed. To notify you of our presence in front of your house, we turned on the flashing lights of our four patrol vehicles and one of the vehicles woke you with a siren. Me and my colleague Martin Robert, we knocked on your door. I showed my police badge to the surveillance camera. You came to open. You were in your underwear. I showed you we have a warrant to arrest you. You took the time to read it. I informed you that you were under arrest for conspiracy to traffic cocaine and gangsterism. And also for a murder plot that you made with Maurice "Mom" Boucher and her daughter ... "
