38 nabbed in raid on drug ring

Lead Suspect A Hells Angel. 'We Keep Arresting People And They Keep
Coming Back'

They keep coming back.

In announcing the dismantlement of a major drug trafficking network
that controlled sales from downtown Montreal to the Lanaudiere
region, police confirmed yesterday that the Hells Angels lost little
ground after a similar yet more significant roundup five years ago.

"They are pretty much organized, they are a big organization. ... We
keep arresting people and they keep coming back," said commander
Didier Deramond, head of Montreal's Regional Integrated Squad, a
joint police unit that targets outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Yesterday, in what was described as the second part of a large
roundup of drug trafficking and smuggling suspects, police arrested
38 people, including a member of the Hells and six members of an
underling gang, the Syndicate. They are expected to be charged today
in Montreal on several counts, including drug trafficking and gangsterism.

Deramond described a hierarchical system that sounded similar to one
set up by Maurice (Mom) Boucher during the biker war.

That network fell to pieces in 2001 when members of the Hells Angels'
Nomads chapter, led by Boucher, and its puppet gang, the Rockers,
were arrested and charged with crimes ranging from drug trafficking to murder.

Deramond alleged yesterday that other Hells Angels simply stepped in
and assumed the drug trafficking turf for which the Nomads chapter
battled so violently between 1994 and 2001.

Mario Brouillette, a member of the Hells Angels' Trois Rivieres
chapter, was arrested along with about 30 other people last week in
the first phase of Operation Fusion. He is alleged to be a leader in
the network.

Andre (Frise) Sauvageau, a member of the Hells Angels' Montreal
chapter, was arrested yesterday. Stephane (Ti-Os) Trudel, a member of
the same chapter, is sought on an arrest warrant. Both Sauvageau and
Trudel were active during the biker war, but as enemies of the Hells
Angels. They defected from the Rock Machine to the rival Hells as the
conflict neared its end.

According to court documents, Trudel was suspected of being behind
several killings during the early years of the biker war and was
believed to be an expert in explosives.

Through the Syndicate, Deramond said, the Hells Angels controlled
drug trafficking in downtown Montreal and the city's western districts.

Dany Cadet, the reputed head of the Syndicate, was arrested yesterday
along with five other gang members. His home in Delson, on the South
Shore, was searched thoroughly by police.

The Syndicate was responsible for "distributing massive amounts of
drugs on the streets of Montreal," Surete du Quebec Capt. Robert Pigeon said.

Deramond said the Hells Angels controlled an area that stretched from
eastern Montreal to the Lanaudiere.

He said drug sales were even conducted out of a drug detox centre in
Trois Rivieres. A 41-year-old man distributed a total of 30 kilograms
of cocaine to dealers in Quebec City and Thunder Bay, Ont., while
serving a suspended sentence at the centre. He recruited other drug
addicts at the centre to move his cocaine, Deramond said.

The vast network was supplied by smugglers who sneaked cocaine -
packed in aluminum ingots - into Canada by ship and by truck. The
people who are alleged to be tied to the smuggling aspects of the
network were arrested last week, Brouillette said.

Among those arrested yesterday was Gaetan Sevigny, the president of a
tow-truck company in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district. Police
seized seven of his trucks, as well as his house on Marquis St. in
Repentigny, a late-model BMW and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. These
were impounded as suspected proceeds of crime, Deramond said. He
would not elaborate on the tow-truck company's alleged role in the
drug trafficking network.

Also arrested yesterday was Patrick Lock, a former president of the
Rockers gang who has long had a reputation as a big-time drug dealer
in eastern Montreal.

Lock spent most of the biker war behind bars for plotting to kill a
man he suspected was a police informant.