The supplier to a firearms trafficking network that supported street gangs during an outbreak of violence in Montreal was just sentenced to seven years in prison.
In the fall of 2021, Daniel Charléus came to the attention of the police, who were investigating a network of firearms dealers who supplied the black market.
At the time, authorities feared that several of these weapons could have been used in repeated shootings in the metropolis.
Without knowing it, Charléus supplied a double agent with a CZ Scorpion EVO 3S1 weapon. He also handed over an AR-15 rifle, court records show.
An AR-15 weapon sold by the defendant. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COURT
The latter weapon is often used in mass murders in the USA.
The 28-year-old defendant has just pleaded guilty at the Longueuil courthouse to seven counts related to firearms trafficking and arms trafficking.
Intruders
The investigation by the Integrated Arms Trafficking Team – a force founded in 2021 after the outbreak of violence in the Montreal region – was initially directed against Jérémie Lamontagne.
The latter was considered the mastermind of a weapons and drug trafficking network. During a meeting with a double agent, he boasted that he could supply several types of weapons, all he had to do was contact “his friend” in Montreal.
This friend was Daniel Charléus.
Daniel Charléus PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE COURT
A transaction was scheduled for May 31, 2022. Lamontagne initially visited the defendant at his home. They walked together and Charléus carried a plastic bag.
The defendant and Jérémie Lamontagne, photographed during a covert operation. In his hands, Charléus holds a bag with the weapon that is to be sold to the double agent. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COURT
It was the same bag that Lamontagne then gave to the double agent in exchange for $12,000. The bag contained the CZ Scorpion EVO 3S1 rifle, 9 mm caliber, and a high-capacity magazine.
The CZ Scorpion EVO 3S1 rifle hidden in a plastic bag. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COURT
The next day, police broke into Daniel Charléus’ home and recovered a 9mm caliber pistol hidden in a crawlspace behind a piece of furniture accessible through a trapdoor. A magazine with a capacity of 30 bullets, ammunition, 168 grams of cocaine and three cell phones were found.
Ruger 9mm firearm found on Daniel Charléus. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COURT
Hidden bundles of money
Nearly $37,900 was also seized, which was hidden between the mattress and box spring, as well as in the headboard of the bed. Police also confiscated the $26,000 found in Charléus’ parents’ home.
He has been incarcerated since his arrest on June 1, 2022 and has four and a half years left to serve of the seven-year sentence he received.
Bundle of money hidden in defendant’s bed. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COURT
His accomplices, who were arrested at the same time as him, have already pleaded guilty.
Jérémie Lamontagne abandoned the trial a year ago and was sentenced to six years in prison. At the time of his arrest, he was handcuffed in front of his father, then deputy director of the fire department of the municipalities of Saint-Constant, Candiac and Sainte-Catherine.
Jérémie Lamontagne during his arrest in June 2022. MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
Jonathan Lavigne, described as Lamontagne’s right-hand man, was given a four-year prison sentence, while Marc-Antoine Lefebvre received a three-year prison sentence.