A heavily armed SWAT team raided an upscale Montreal condominium early on Sunday to capture the three men police say made a bold escape by helicopter from a Quebec jail two weeks ago.
The men, who were facing murder and gangsterism charges before the jailbreak, were found in a posh 10th-floor condo with a stunning view of the city in a ritzy new development in Old Montreal, just steps from the historic waterfront.
Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49, were arrested after police busted open the door to enter the residence at about 1:30am, Quebec police said.
They were due in court in Quebec City yesterday to face fresh charges, but police did not spell out what the new accusations would be.
Police did not divulge details about what led them to the condo.
By midday on Sunday, police had left the scene after carrying out several containers and bags. Two maintenance workers were cleaning up the apartment where the men were arrested.
The splintered door was ajar in its bent frame, while inside the furniture was askew, with a couch on its side and cushions scattered about. Mattresses, blankets and pillows were on the floor.
Quebec police Sergeant Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said investigators had gathered evidence from the condo that could be used in court. She said the investigation into the June 7 escape is ongoing and further arrests are likely.
“It could be a person who helped them escape from prison or a person who helped them hide from us,” Bilodeau said.
The three men were originally arrested as part of Operation Crayfish in 2010, which dismantled a network of drug traffickers.
On June 7, police said a helicopter plucked the three men from a courtyard of the Orsainville Detention Center in suburban Quebec City, triggering an international manhunt.
The Quebec government has ordered an internal investigation into the jailbreak.
Questions have been raised about a decision by Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne who had been asked to rule on a request by the three men to loosen the strict security conditions under which they were being held.
The inmates had argued that the security conditions impeded preparations for their defense in court.
The judge’s decision, which was dated on March 24 and took effect shortly before the escape, was only recently made public.
In his ruling, the judge gave the detainees access to a secured computer for their trial preparation. The ruling also stated they did not have to wear handcuffs during proceedings and would be allowed to go into the prison yard on weekday evenings, prison staff permitting.
Quebec Public Security Minister Lise Theriault has said she does not know why the judge agreed to the request to loosen the security restrictions.
Theriault said on Sunday that she was “relieved” the men had finally been caught.
The administrative probe is also to examine a similar escape last year.
In March last year, two inmates grabbed onto a rope dropped from a helicopter at the St-Jerome detention center and flew away, but they were quickly recaptured.
No-fly zones have now been imposed over select prisons in Quebec, following a request by the provincial government.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS