Trois-Rivières section Hells Angels Serge Lebrasseur was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Thursday for leading a network of cocaine and methamphetamine traffickers that operated in Sorel-Tracy, the bikers’ stronghold.
Posted at 5:14 p.m
Lebrasseur, 59, pleaded guilty Thursday morning at the Sorel-Tracy Courthouse to three counts of conspiracy, cocaine trafficking and methamphetamine trafficking. The offenses were committed between January and June 2021.
Lebrasseur and his co-defendants have been in custody since last February after they were arrested following an investigation called Quincajou, conducted by investigators from the Montérégie Regional Mixed Squad (ERM) under the direction of the Sûreté du Québec.
“He controls the drug trade and Sorel-Tracy territory. He sets the prices and receives a sales valuation,” described prosecutor Me Corinne Girard before Judge Stéphane Godry of the Quebec Court.
Caught by police customers
The evidence is based on several techniques used by investigators during the Quincajou investigation, from shadowing to the installation of cameras and microphones, including the installation of GPS beacons and the use of undercover agents.
During the investigation, they made several drug purchases. They also obtained incriminating confidences about their boss from co-defendants who did not know they were dealing with police officers. “It is the old man who decides [du prix] ” a suspect said to one of the police moles.
“The undercover agents asked one of the suspects if it was Lebrasseur who ran the network and he confirmed everything,” Me Girard said.
During a meeting with a suspect, undercover agents gave him $2,500 in exchange for 1,000 methamphetamine pills.
Another time, a co-defendant told an undercover agent that he had made $2,000 in a week.
Joint proposal
Judge Godry supported a joint proposal from the prosecution and defense.
Minus the time in preventive detention, which is calculated in one and a half hours, the cyclist has about 28 months left to serve.
The fact that Lebrasseur pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and thus avoided a two-month trial was considered a mitigating circumstance.
His extensive criminal history, the type and quantity of drugs confiscated and the fact that he was a manager were considered aggravating circumstances.
Special treatment
Lebrasseur, who has a leg disability and has spent several stints in prison in recent years, must use a wheelchair, crutches, a walker, a chair with armrests and anti-slip strips in his shower, behind the bars, according to a Supreme Court ruling.
But since his arrest in February, he has been held in Sorel prison and then in Rivière-des-Prairies detention center, being returned to Sorel before being transferred to the Montreal (Bordeaux) detention center.
Every time everything has to be restarted and the places and equipment have to be adapted to the biker’s condition. His lawyer, Me Annie Lahaise, therefore asked the judge to make a recommendation that he avoid transfer to the regional reception center, where inmates arriving in the federal system are assessed, and go directly from Drummondville to the penitentiary.
“Hmm, that’s going a little too far for me. It’s a matter of management and security clearance. At best I could say that if he has a medium rating he should go to Drummondville, but I cannot interfere in the administration of the correctional facilities,” the judge mused aloud before turning to the condemned man.
“Mr Lebrasseur, you can do that [tenir] It goes without saying that I will make the recommendation, but it remains a recommendation,” he warned.
It should also be noted that Lebrasseur declined to contest a prosecutor’s request to confiscate and destroy clothing and jewelry bearing the image of the Hells Angels found in his home.
On the other hand, a black coat is returned to him, but not without badges first cut out in front of the police before they are handed over to him.
Nearly all of the other defendants in the Quincajou investigation, including Kevin Tessier, a member of the school’s Mean Tribe club and the Hells Angels, also pleaded guilty Thursday.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, extension 4918, write to [email protected] or write to La Presse’s mailing address.
Who is Serge Lebrasseur?
A former member of the Rowdy Crew, he joined the ranks of the Hells Angels in 1998.
He was arrested in 2009 as part of Operation SharQc, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of conspiracy to commit murder and was released in 2015.
In May 2021, he was sentenced to five months in prison for intimidating a security guard near the Sorel-Tracy–Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola ferry.