26 ARRESTED IN DRUG RAIDS ON 11 GATINEAU LOCATIONS

Scene Of Fatal Stabbing Among Sites Officers Target

The seedy Hull crackhouse where a lottery winner was stabbed to death
earlier this month was the scene of nine of 26 arrests that were part
of a massive drug bust conducted Thursday across Gatineau's core.

Police say Denis St. Jacques, who won a $1-million lottery four years
ago, was in a heated dispute with a drug dealer on Feb. 8 when he was
stabbed.

Gatineau and provincial police, as well as RCMP, have been working on
Operation Centreville, a project targeting drug dealers in downtown
Gatineau, for the past six weeks.

The operation was already underway when Mr. St. Jacques was
stabbed.

"It was a known address to us. It was in our operation and we had good
information that led us to a quick arrest," said Gatineau police
spokesman Sgt. Jean-Paul Le May.

Ninety officers, including an emergency response team, helped make the
simultaneous arrests at 11 locations. Most of the charges were related
to trafficking in crack cocaine.

Lorraine Gagnon lives at 70 Garneau St., the second-floor apartment at
the back of a white two-storey house, where Mr. St. Jacques was
killed. She was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, and appeared in
provincial court yesterday, along with 21 others.

Officers allege more than half of the accused live in the crackhouses
where the arrests took place. Police confirm they are looking into a
potential drug ring.

"There's nothing right now that indicates that it is gang-related. It's a
small district and all these people know each other," said Sgt. Le May.

The police have area residents to thank for the arrests. According to
police, residents were sick of drug peddling and prostitution on their
streets, and took matters into their own hands.

"We were getting a lot of information from them, so we had to act,"
said Sgt. Le May.

The police are also taking steps to make sure drug-using prostitutes
are looked after, but not by arresting them.

"Most of the clients were prostitutes but we weren't after the
prostitutes. We were after the traffickers. "Their pusher isn't there
today," said Sgt. Le May.

A crisis management team is making sure prostitutes have help
available to them.

Police have made 32 arrests since the project began. Most of the
charges were combinations of crack cocaine possession and trafficking,
plus some hashish, marijuana and ecstacy-related charges.

Police say one man was found with a gun, while another tried to flee
officers, only to be caught by a police dog.

"It's an ongoing investigation so we're connecting all of the
information. The goal was to hit the traffickers and the residences
where they were dealing from," said Sgt. Le May.

But he said Operation Centre-ville isn't finished.

"Other arrests are to be made," he said.

Christian Bourbonniere was arrested within hours of Mr. St. Jacques'
killing and charged with second-degree murder the next day. Police are
still looking for two other suspects.