One of the largest operations to take down a drug network in Quebec led to the arrest of fifteen suspects by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) on Wednesday morning.
Posted at 3:46pm
A total of 14 men and one woman were arrested Wednesday in connection with the May 2022 large-scale busting of an amphetamine trafficking network.
The suspects were mostly arrested at their homes in Montreal, Laval, Boucherville, Rosemère, Shawinigan and La Malbaie, the SPVM said in a press release.
They will appear on Wednesday afternoon to face charges of manufacturing narcotics, possession for trafficking, drug trafficking and conspiracies related to this trafficking, the SPVM specifies. A charge of gangsterism is also being brought against some of the alleged perpetrators.
A big disassembly
On May 25, 2022, the SPVM’s Organized Crime Unit conducted a major police operation in Montreal and several regions of Quebec. “It’s our Breaking Bad of Quebec,” Francis Renaud, commander of the SPVM’s Organized Crime Unit, told La Presse at the time.
According to the SPVM investigation, this drug network distributed up to 5 million amphetamines weekly in Quebec. In a series of 28 searches, the police department seized 6.5 million amphetamine pills, 21 firearms, 1000 pounds of methamphetamine powder, 25 pounds of pure meth, 5,000 MDMA (ecstasy) tablets, hundreds of Cialis and Xanax pills, 13 pill presses, 1,002 punches with various designs, 250,000 packing bags, 10 cell phones and a computer, and nearly $300,000 in cash.
These seizures took place in Montreal, Laval, the Laurentians, Montérégie, Centre-du-Québec and Mauricie.
“The scale of the seizures carried out deals a serious blow to organized crime, depriving criminals of an important source of income to finance, among other things, the purchase of firearms,” the SPVM said in a press release.
“We pulled the rug out from under the feet of this organization,” Francis Renaud argued to La Presse at the time.