Quebec biker charged with 22 murders

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This article was published 03/11/2010 (5483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Twenty-two murder charges were laid against an alleged biker boss, whom police had been seeking for almost two years.

The litany of accusations was delivered in a Montreal courtroom against an alleged Hells Angels boss, Normand (Casper) Ouimet. There were charges of first-degree murder. Conspiracy to commit murder. Gangsterism. And a slew of others related to criminal corruption in the construction industry.

All the slayings date back to Quebec’s infamous biker war that reached its peak in the 1990s with frequent bombings and drive-by shootings.

Ouimet was arraigned in court under tight security Tuesday.

The previous evening, police swooped in on a taxi cab Ouimet had been riding in and arrested their suspect, who had a Canada-wide warrant out for his arrest since April 2009.

“It was a very important arrest,” said Crown prosecutor Madeleine Giauque. “There’s… 22 murders over 17 years, from 1992 until 2009.”

Ouimet had to appear before two different judges to be arraigned on charges from two separate police investigations.

He faced a Quebec Superior Court Justice in connection with Operation SharQc, which originally targeted about 155 associates and members of the Hells Angels.

That operation helped liquidate the province’s powerful Hells Angels last year — but about two dozen of the wanted suspects remained missing. Ouimet, 41, was one of them.

He was allegedly one of Quebec’s most powerful Hells Angels and was on the province’s top 10 most-wanted list.

He also faces charges stemming from his involvement in a construction firm that has been making headlines lately.

The other police operation — code-named Diligence — was a crackdown against organized crime’s infiltration of the bricklaying industry. Ouimet is accused of masterminding an operation that saw criminals take over businesses and use them for money-laundering. In that case, Ouimet appeared before a Quebec court judge to face charges of fraud, extortion, gangsterism and money-laundering.

Ouimet was involved in the family firm of Paul Sauve, who won a $9-million contract to renovate Parliament Hill. Sauve has said the Hells finagled their way into his own family business at a time when he needed quick cash to finish a major project. Then the threats and bullying began, he says.

Sauve has since lost the contract because his company, LM Sauve, went bankrupt. The renovation has become embroiled in political scandal and work has ground to a halt.

 

— The Canadian Press