https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/04/10/frappe-policiere-majeure-contre-les-hells-angelsA Hells trapped in his house
The veteran biker did not suspect that the police had installed a microphone at his home to record it without his knowledge
Two Hells Angels would have been too talkative about their illicit income and the amount of drugs sold by their network, unaware that they were being recorded without their knowledge by the police.
Pascal Facchino
Accused
It was only after their arrest yesterday that Claude Gauthier, a veteran of the Hells chapter of Trois-Rivières for 21 years, and Pascal Facchino, newly promoted member of the biker gang last winter, learned how they went. Trapped by the National Crime Enforcement Squad (ENRCO).
The police had secretly installed a microphone inside Gauthier's residence in Nicolet, according to information obtained by Le Journal .
Gauthier and Facchino have been talking about accounting and "business" in the midst of the wiretapping operation conducted during the Orque investigation project, which they have been two of the main targets since 2018.
The alleged leaders of the network hit yesterday allegedly boasted the sale of about 10 kilos of cocaine per month - the equivalent of 150 000 doses - in the region of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and the RCM of Roussillon which extends from Châteauguay to La Prairie.
The Hells would have costed their monthly fees - also known as "taxes" - at $ 50,000, or 10% of the sales revenue that all traffickers doing business in the Hells-controlled territories must pay.
Violence and intimidation
Motorcyclists have "imposed" their stranglehold on these markets of the Montérégie "by resorting to violence and intimidation," said Chief Inspector Guy Lapointe, spokesman for the squad grouping the Sûreté du Québec. Quebec and the police services of Montreal, Laval, Quebec and Lévis.
Steven Lepage-Savard, 24, considered a "manager" of the network, was also voluble while the police watched him.
"I'm going to the" pen "..."
On October 24, 2018, the ENRCO conducted a search of the home of this young Montrealer, in the Lachine borough, where he lives with his girlfriend, his mother and his father-in-law, all of whom were accused yesterday.
Lepage-Savard was not at home when the police visited, but in a telephone conversation with his father-in-law, he summoned the latter to "flush" the narcotics hidden there before the police found them.
Three days later, the young accused already knew what was waiting for him.
"Fuck, have you not seen the news? I'm going to the "pen". Have seized all. They will stop me there, "he told a client without knowing that the police were listening.
The 33 alleged traffickers of the network appeared yesterday at courthouses in Montreal and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
"Very few defendants could be released. Those who remain detained will return to court on Monday to set the dates for their bail hearing, "said one of the defense lawyers, Tom Pentefountas.
The Journal also learned that ENRCO has used undercover agents to make several purchases of drugs from the network, also present in the Mauricie, Estrie and Outaouais.
This organization also sold methamphetamine and crack, according to the survey conducted by the Montérégie Regional Mixed Squad and the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu police.
Traffickers used code names to identify their products: "soft" for cocaine, "hard" for crack, and "pinches" for methamphetamine tablets.
- With Michaël Nguyen and Félix Séguin, Investigation Bureau
