Cracking down
Police forces team up to probe gangland slayings
MONTREAL — In a move similar to that sparked by the rising death toll in the criminal biker wars that ravaged Quebec in the late 1990s, the Sûreté du Québec and Montreal police announced on Tuesday that they have pooled their investigative assets to probe a string of gangland slayings that have been carried out since the beginning of the year.
Investigators from each force will be assigned to work with their counterparts in major crime offices in east-end Montreal, Boucherville and Mascouche in an effort to share intelligence on organized crime gathered by physical and electronic surveillance and compare notes. Nearly 20 murders related to organized crime have been recorded this year in the Montreal area.
“Intelligence is the sinew of war,” said
SQ spokesperson Guy Lapointe, who added that such partnerships had proved their worth in the past. “We want to send a clear message to these individuals: We are going to find you and we are going to charge you.”
The collaboration, announced Tuesday by the heads of the SQ and the Montreal police, echoes the creation in 1995 of the Wolverine Squad (Escouade Carcajou), a unit also composed of provincial and Montreal police formed after the death of a young Montreal boy killed by shrapnel from a criminal biker bomb meant for a drug dealer.
The heads of both police forces expressed fears that the series of gangland killings committed so far in 2019 could eventually claim the life of an innocent victim.