The police have been raiding the residences of the province’s most influential organized crime members since early Wednesday morning, La Presse has learned.
According to reports, investigators from the National Organized Crime Repression Squad (ENRCO) are raiding the residences of half a dozen individuals, including the Hells Angels of the Montreal section Martin Robert, Stéphane Plouffe and Michel Lamontagne.
The homes of other individuals, including the former lieutenant of the Rizzuto clan Francesco Del Balso, now considered by the police to be close to the bikers, are also searched.
No arrests are expected.
This is the first wave of searches carried out during the investigation and intended to gather clues, because since the Supreme Court’s Jordan decision, which limits judicial delays, the police and the prosecution want to be ready to release their evidence as soon as a suspect is arrested and charged.
The investigation, started in 2021, “concerns drug trafficking and targets influential members of the Hells Angels”, simply indicated a spokesperson for the SQ to La Presse.
The suspects are suspected of being the heads of a network of narcotics traffickers and distributors active in Montreal and in the North and South Crowns.
In total, six individuals are targeted and eight residences are searched in Laval, Westmount, Mirabel, L’Estérel, Sainte-Sophie and Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.
The police also consider Martin Robert and Stéphane Plouffe to be part of a core of “decision makers” within the biker-mafia-gang alliance that has run Montreal organized crime since the natural death of former godfather Vito Rizzuto in December 2013.
The mandate of the ENRCO, which is overseen by the Sûreté du Québec, is to attack the heads of organized crime in the province.