A right-hand man of the late kingpin Gregory Woolley arrested with firearms
Bloodhounds first found a loaded pistol in his vehicle and another later in the day in his residence located on the South Shore of Montreal. Jean-Winsing Barthelus appeared Saturday at the Longueuil courthouse where he was notably accused of possession of weapons. The prosecution objected to his release and he will return to court in the coming days. Barthelus, who came from blue street gangs, was a long-time traveling companion of Gregory Woolley with whom he was part, during the 1990s, of a group called the Syndicate which controlled drug trafficking in downtown Montreal on behalf of the Hells Angels. Today, Barthelus is still considered by the police as a biker relation. Under ban
Barthelus is already under an order prohibiting him from possessing a weapon. This was renewed the last time in March 2019 when Judge Marc David, of the Superior Court, sentenced him to 57 months in prison for gangsterism, conspiracy and cocaine trafficking.
But, subtracting the period spent in preventive detention, he only had one day left to serve. Barthelus and Gregory Woolley were arrested in November 2015 in Operation Magot-Mastiff through which the Sûreté du Québec decapitated a mafia-biker-gang alliance that had led Montreal organized crime since the natural death of former godfather Vito Rizzuto. A statement of facts filed in court revealed that the head of a drug trafficking network operating in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district — who became a collaborating witness for the police — had communicated several times with Barthelus to order kilograms of cocaine. Barthelus has other criminal histories involving drugs and weapons possession. He was sentenced to 30 months for gangsterism, possession of a firearm and drug trafficking in 2006. He received another 17 months for gangsterism and possession of property obtained by crime in 2010.
