https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/12/accuses-de-blanchir-largent-des-hellsLarge network dismantled: accused of laundering Hells money
The RCMP hits a vast international network recycling the narcodollars of organized crime in Quebec
Organized crime in Quebec has recycled tens of millions of dirty money around the world since 2013, from China to Dubai and the Middle East.
This is the result of Operation Collector, an extensive investigation that allowed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to dismantle an international money laundering network based in Montreal and Toronto yesterday.
This crackdown targeted 19 suspects, including a dozen in the greater Montreal area.
This network would have helped the Hells Angels and other criminal groups to do business with drug cartels in Mexico, cocaine farmers in Colombia, and Chinese suppliers of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine.
According to our sources, the organization has also allowed bikers and organized crime in Quebec to put narcodollars out of the Canadian tax system in investments overseas, or to reinvest them in the legal economy.
During its investigation, the RCMP was able to observe several Quebec "couriers" carrying cash-filled sports bags from Montreal to Toronto.
The money was entrusted to a bureau de change and a company paravent, who said he was involved in the field of food, before being transferred abroad. EZ Food President Nader Gramian-Nik and his 71-year-old right-hand man, who is still under investigation by the police, Fred Rayman, face a string of charges.
On the Quebec side, the alleged leaders of the network are Lavallois Mohamad Jaber, 51, and Kamel Ghaddar, 39.
Lebanese underworld
According to our sources, Jaber is known to police for its alleged links with members of the Lebanese underworld who were involved in an import of 132 kg of cocaine that failed miserably in April 2017.
The Quebec plane pilot who reported the drugs from the Dominican Republic with an accomplice had to land in Ohio urgently when his old twin engine had experienced mechanical trouble.
In addition to Canada, the allegations of conspiracy over a six-year period have ramifications in eight other countries: Lebanon, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Colombia and the United States. -United.
Several other suspects targeted in the investigation are also accused of engaging in drug trafficking.
This is the case of two suspects still wanted by the RCMP: Montrealer Victor Vargotskii, 56, and Francisco Javier Jimenez Guerrero, 35, whose address is unknown.
THE COLLECTOR OPERATION
♦ 19 arrests, 12 in Quebec and seven in Ontario
♦ 16 men and 3 women ranging in age from 25 to 71 years
♦ 3 of these suspects are still wanted
♦ The offenses cover a period of six years and have been committed in at least 9 countries
♦ $ 1.7 million in cash has been seized
♦ 6 properties valued at nearly $ 15 million and considered proceeds of crime could be forfeited to the state under court orders
