Louis Pasquin is believed to be the first lawyer in Canada to be convicted of gangsterism.

Louis Pasquin is believed to be the first lawyer in Canada to be convicted of gangsterism.Pasquin looked shocked as he heard the verdict, which was delivered by Quebec court Judge Carol St-Cyr after nine months of deliberation.Pasquin, 49, has been a lawyer for more than 20 years and has also represented members of the Montreal Mafia.St-Cyr said Pasquin's explanations during testimony didn't hold water.
"Your testimony did not withstand analysis, is unlikely and not credible," the judge said.St-Cyr said he didn't believe Pasquin when he said he was unaware of the activities of two other men arrested in the case."The caution he used in his conversations and the cryptic language show that contrary to his assertions he knew perfectly well about their activities," St-Cyr said.Evidence at Pasquin's trial suggested he acted as a liaison between a drug ring leader and a pilot who allegedly made cocaine runs.

Read more »

Giuseppe Coluccio, a suspected drug trafficker, who has been on the run since 2005.

Giuseppe Coluccio, a suspected drug trafficker, who has been on the run since 2005. The country's defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said the arrest showed authorities were making advances in the fight against organised crime."Coluccio had lived happily in Canada thanks to the (support) provided by the Calabrian clans – a situation that shows the extraordinary reach of the 'Ndrangheta," public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone was quoted by Italian media as saying. Italy's ANSA news agency reported that police found $1 million in checks at Coluccio's home.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a statement late on Thursday that Coluccio was arrested near Toronto on a Canada-wide immigration warrant and is wanted by Italy for drug-related offenses.'Ndrangheta, based in the southern Calabria region, has reportedly overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful Italian crime group.

Read more »

Guy Lepage, a former police officer now serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking

Guy Lepage, a former police officer now serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking, he was drawn into the biker's life of crime 20 years ago.
Mr. Lepage, 61, discussed his past relationship with the biker leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher yesterday during a parole board hearing.He was granted day parole, his first release since being arrested in 2001 and extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty to helping the Angels buy large quantities of cocaine from a Colombian drug cartel and ship it to Florida in 1997 and 1998. He was transferred to a Canadian prison in 2005.Lepage was granted day parole for the next six months, during which he is expected to take part in community projects. He was accepted into a program working with the elderly, and said he plans to lecture at schools that teach criminology.
Mr. Lepage said that despite his important involvement in their conspiracies, he never considered himself part of the Hells Angels, but he did acknowledge being Mr. Boucher's friend."I don't know if it was his charm or something else. He had this charisma," he said of Mr. Boucher, who is serving three life sentences for ordering the deaths of prison guards in an attempt to influence Quebec's justice.Lepage, 61, discussed his past relationship with the Hells Angels leader at length yesterday during a National Parole Board hearing at a minimum-security penitentiary in Laval. He was granted day parole, his first release since being arrested in December 2001 and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to helping the Hells Angels buy cocaine from a Colombian drug cartel and ship more than 1,600 kilograms of the drug to Florida in 1997 and 1998. He was transferred back to the Canadian prison system in 2005.The drugs were destined for Montreal while the city witnessed a bloody biker gang war. Lepage was sent to Colombia by Boucher and other members of the Hells Angels to oversee five large shipments of the drug.
Lepage told parole board members Denis Couillard and Michel Pallascio that despite his involvement with the bikers, he never considered himself part of the Hells Angels. But he did acknowledge being Boucher's friend.Even though they grew up in the same neighbourhood in eastern Montreal, the two only met in 1987, Lepage said. At the time, Lepage was running a disco in Sorel and Boucher was beginning his ascent toward becoming the most powerful Hells Angel in Quebec.Couillard asked Lepage to explain how one can go from protecting society as a police officer to being someone who thinks nothing of breaking its laws."How did you go from one extreme to the other?" he asked.Lepage explained that the Hells Angels put him "on a pedestal" and made him feel important. It was clear his experience as a police officer and good name were valuable assets to Boucher."I don't know if it was his charm or something else. He had this charisma," Lepage said of Boucher, who is serving three life sentences for ordering the deaths of prison guards in an attempt to intimidate Quebec's justice system."It's hard to explain. (The Hells Angels) sought me out by giving me gifts, taking me out to dinner. It gave me value. It impressed me. To be frank, I never questioned it."After the two became friends, Boucher began asking Lepage for favours. One involved securing a mortgage for a building the Rockers, a Hells Angels puppet gang, used as a fortified bunker during the biker war. Lepage, who resigned from Montreal's police force in 1974 while a friend was being investigated for fraud, obtained the mortgage through a federal government program.Lepage also helped the Hells Angels set up a money-laundering network in northern British Colombia, to which he pleaded guilty in 1994. He was sentenced two years in prison and fined $200,000. He was given three years to pay, but so far has only paid $30,000. Because of this, in 2006, a seizure order was placed on real estate Lepage owns in St. Philippe, a South Shore town.
Lepage said yesterday that months after his arrest in 2001, he promised his family he would sever ties with Boucher. The only time he showed emotion during the parole hearing was when Couillard brought up an allegation concerning Boucher contained in Lepage's file. Couillard said a letter sent to Boucher after 2001 by another criminal included a mention that Lepage wished to send along his greetings.Lepage called the allegation nonsense. His lawyer, Jacques Normandeau, pointed out that Boucher is still kept in isolation at the so-called super-maximum-security penitentiary in Ste. Anne des Plaines and is only allowed visits by two individuals, who were not named.

Read more »

William MacAllistYou can't be a little pregnant and you also can't be a little involved in criminality. You're either in it all the way or you're not.

William MacAllister said as much this morning during a National Parole Board hearing at a federal corrections institution in Laval where he was questioned about why he has spent much of his 65 years behind bars. The panel of two parole board members, Odette Gravel-Dunberry and Gilles Roussel, granted MacAllister full parole, a freedom he hasn't experienced in 15 years. Gravel-Dunberry, the NPB's regional vice-chairman in Quebec, described it as "a major decision." This is in part because MacAllister, who received a life sentence for his role in the September 1973 holdup of a Brink's armoured truck, violated his parole twice before.
Claude Vienneau, 35, a Brink's guard, was shot and killed during the $270,000 robbery. Another Brink's guard was wounded. MacAllister was convicted by a jury who found him guilty of attempted murder. During the late 1970s, MacAllister was at the forefront of several protests for inmates' rights. He also let the parole board down twice. He was paroled in 1981 but was convicted of drug smuggling in 1987. In 1994, he was deported to the U.S. for conspiring to smuggle 5,000 kilograms of cocaine into Canada through Florida, all while he was out on parole for a second time.
"We believe there are some changes," Gravel-Dunberry said today. "We believe you are motivated to change your life and stay out of prison."
While MacAllister went over the long history of his criminal ways he said he no longer recognized Montreal's organized crime scene. Before the fatal bank robbery MacAllister's criminal associates were a tight-knit group of like-minded people. He had grown up hoping to be a professional hockey player but admired the gangsters from his neighbourhood.
"Back then, they were your friends, people you could trust," MacAllister said of the robbers he committed crimes with.
Tougher sentencing made the prospect of robbing banks very unattractive by the time MacAllister was first released in 1981. By then organized crime in the city changed its focus towards drug trafficking.
"Now it's all about backstabbing. It's cut-throat and full of liars. It's garbage," said MacAllister who still insists he was roped into his last conviction by a Quebec lawyer he claims was working as a police informant.
In that case he was extradited to the U.S. for conspiring to smuggle 5,000 kilograms of cocaine into Canada through Florida and served eight years behind bars in U.S. penitentiaries, which he describes as much tougher than those in Canada.
He returned to Canada in 2002 but was immediately arrested when he arrived because of his life sentence.Since then he has been granted leave privileges and was released on day parole last year. According to Correctional Service Canada, MacAllister no longer associates with known criminals and he recently married. But before granting MacAllister full parole Roussel asked him how he will do things differently this time around.
"I will be straight up with you. If I wanted to return to criminality I would have been long gone four or five years ago," MacAllister said in an apparent reference to how he could have easily escaped while at a minimum-security institution.
"You can't be a little pregnant and you also can't be a little involved in criminality. You're either in it all the way or you're not. I am no longer involved in criminality."

Read more »