https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...-une-trentaine-darrestations-prevues.php

Operation against the Hells Angels: thirty arrests planned

The police are leading this morning a ring in the entourage of the Hells Angels. Thirty arrests are planned in connection with the sale of narcotics.

The National Organized Crime Squad (ENRCO), which brings together several police forces under the coordination of the Sûreté du Québec, triggered the operation in the early hours of the morning.

According to our information, two members of the Hells Angels, Claude Gauthier and Pascal Facchino, appear on the hunting board of the police. The homes of the two men had been searched during the investigation called Orque in mid-December.

Gauthier is an influential member of the Hells Angels of Trois-Rivières. He is very close to ex-member Mario Brouillette and the influential Normand Ouimet, currently held in the wake of Operation SharQc.


Claude Gauthier is an influential member of the Hells Angels of Trois-Rivières.


Gauthier was the Hells Angels who remained the longest on the run following Operation SharQc conducted in April 2009. He did not give himself until seven and a half years later, in December 2016, but benefited from a stay of proceedings the next day. He was accused of murders and murder conspiracies, like all the others, and was on the list of the ten most wanted criminals in Quebec.

As for Pascal Facchino, he would be the last Hells Angels to have officially obtained his colors, these last months, during the investigation Orque.

All suspects arrested this morning will be charged today at the Montreal and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu courthouses. The principals will face chiefs of gangsterism, conspiracy to drug trafficking, drug trafficking and receiving.

According to Sergeant Claude Denis, the strike is aimed at the dismantling of several drug control networks controlled by the Hells and activated in "more than a dozen municipalities" in the Mauricie, Montérégie, Estrie, Outaouais, Central Quebec. du Québec and in certain specific boroughs of Montreal.

The searches this morning are the culmination of two investigations. The first, Orque, was conducted by ENRCO, whose mandate is to fight against the heads of organized crime, while the second, called Palmaire, was carried out by the Regional Mixed Squad (MRE) of the Montérégie, headed by the Sûreté du Québec.