Gangs of Montreal, Episode 8: Who guidelines Montreal’s underworld?

Breadcrumb Trail Links

The last episode of our podcast The Dark North: Gangs of Montreal looks at a stunning Hells Angels court case from 2015 and the fate of the organization since then.

Author of the article:

Monique Beaudin Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

Feb 03, 2020February 3, 20201 minute read Join the conversation Montreal’s underworld looks very different today than it did in 1977, where our podcast started. The Montreal Mafia has no leader and the Hells Angels are calling the shots. Montreal’s underworld looks very different today than it did in 1977, where our podcast started. The Montreal Mafia has no leader and the Hells Angels are calling the shots. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Article content

On the morning of Oct. 9, 2015, five full-patch Hells Angels members filed into a heavy-security courtroom at a specially built courthouse in north-end Montreal.

Article content

They were among 100 Quebec Hells Angels arrested in sweeping raids in 2009 and accused of conspiring to murder more than 150 people during Quebec’s biker war in the 1990s. The five men in court in October 2015 had been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

But in a stunning move, Superior Court Justice James Brunton ordered a stay of proceedings and ruled that the five men should be set free. The decision came after the Crown prosecutors in the case had refused to give the Hells Angels’ defence lawyers a police report that could have cleared their clients.

Brunton called it an abuse of process and said the Crown had a win-at-all-costs attitude.

As the decision was read, one of the Hells, in the prisoner’s box, pumped his arm upward and gave the courtroom a thumbs-up. A few hours later, the bikers walked free.

The last episode of our podcast The Dark North: Gangs of Montreal looks at that court case and the fate of the Hells Angels since 2015.

Montreal’s underworld looks very different today than it did in 1977, where our podcast started.

The Montreal Mafia has no leader and the Hells Angels are calling the shots.

The Dark North: Gangs of Montreal is hosted by Paul Cherry, the Montreal Gazette’s crime reporter. You can subscribe to The Dark North on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher.

  1. Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., 82, the man who police say was once Montreal's Mafia godfather, was arrested in November 2006 and charged with gangsterism.

    Gangs of Montreal, Episode 7: Taking down the Rizzutos

  2. Vito Rizzuto, seen in a 2004 photo, was the leader of the Montreal Mafia.

    Gangs of Montreal, Episode 6: Vito Rizzuto, global superboss

  3. By the end of August 1994, members of all four Hells Angels chapters established in Quebec at the time voted unanimously in favour of going to war against rival organizations. The conflict continued until 2002 and resulted in more than 160 deaths.

    Gangs of Montreal, Episode 5: The biker war

Comments are closed.