SQ, RCMP BUST POT EXPORT RING

Quebec, N.B. Raids. Police Say Traffickers Were Smuggling Locally
Grown Crops Into Maine

More than 60 people in Quebec and New Brunswick were arrested
yesterday as police cracked down on a drug trafficking ring with
alleged ties to the Hells Angels that exported marijuana to the United States.

Among the people arrested by the Surete du Quebec was Sylvain
Decelles, 46, of Laval, who has been tied to the biker gang by police
for years. In 2004, he received a probationary sentence for producing
marijuana in the Montmagny region.

Police sources described Decelles as an important figure among the
people arrested. As of late yesterday afternoon, 68 people had been
arrested and another five were sought on warrants.

During the Hells Angels megatrials a few years ago, informants said
Decelles's brother Alain worked for the gang's elite Nomads chapter.
The brothers were also linked to the Hells Angels when the SQ made a
similar roundup of traffickers in 1998.

As part of the police operation yesterday, Sylvain Decelles's house
on Bellemare St. in Laval's Fabreville district was searched. The SQ
and RCMP officers in New Brunswick carried out 34 search warrants,
seizing five guns, 613 grams of cocaine and more than 2,300 marijuana plants.

The SQ said the network produced marijuana in various parts of Quebec
and shipped the crops to New Brunswick, where they were smuggled into Maine.

"It is a large network that has been operating for years," Surete du
Quebec Constable Claude Ross said. "We're talking about growers and exporters."

Ross said the investigation was headed by a regional SQ unit in
Rimouski, but the operation stretched into New Brunswick. More than
370 officers and investigators from the SQ and RCMP took part in the
operation, dubbed Project Aorte/Julien. The investigation began in 2004.

Some of the arrests in Quebec were made in Laval and the Laurentians,
but most of the suspects lived around Rimouski. Many of them appeared
in Quebec Court at Riviere du Loup yesterday afternoon.

Ross said they face charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to
traffic, exporting marijuana and committing crimes for the benefit of
a criminal organization.

On March 21, as part of the same investigation, the Surete du Quebec
arrested 17 people and seized more than 9,500 marijuana plants as
well as 93 kilograms of marijuana.