Police want to chase bikers out of northern crown bars

With the proliferation of school clubs and the release of dozens of Hells Angels members arrested in the wake of Operation SharQc, bars in the North Shore of Montreal have become hubs for bikers and drug traffickers, driven out specialized Éclipse, Équinoxe and BIM squads that monitor Montreal, Laval and Longueuil respectively.

To remove pressure on bar owners, who fear refusing these unwanted clients on pain of reprisal, and to exercise more on organized crime, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) launched yesterday, in close cooperation with the police. Laval, a pilot project called Synergy.

Over the next month, police teams, reaching up to 20 people as needed, will visit the bars to chase bikers and traffickers.
"Imagine that you are a bar keeper and 12 Hells Angels are coming to your establishment. Are you still a decision maker in your bar? No. And if you call the police, are they trained to do business with these guys? Not always. This is the raison d'être of Synergie. "
Benoît Dubé
Inspector responsible for the fight against organized crime at the Sûreté du Québec
"We see the growth of bikers and street drug traffickers. They are the ones who own the bars by selling their drugs and making money that goes into the pockets of organized crime. And the good clientele does not come to the bar because it is intimidated, "says the inspector.
"The goal is to help the bar owners keep their establishment. We do not want to put pressure on them, we want to make our allies. The tenants and the doorkeepers will work with us, "added Mr. Dubé.

About fifty bars already listed
Synergie has three police teams, one in Lachenaie, managed by the SQ, and two in Laval, managed by Laval police. These teams include intelligence officers, organized crime investigators and patrol officers. The territory covered by the Synergie police extends from Deux-Montagnes to Berthier, to Saint-Sauveur, in cities where there are no squads similar to Eclipse or Equinox, and where the tenants are left behind. to themselves. But the police could even go further north, if necessary.

Already, some 50 institutions have been identified as problematic by the criminal intelligence services.
"You can not just visit a bar once a year, under the Liquor Offenses Act [LIMBA], and give tickets to tenants. Synergy is not used for that. However, we will continue to act under LIMBA in institutions that are owned by organized crime, "says Benoît Dubé.

Other targeted regions
In addition to the SQ and the Laval police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Blainville, L'Assomption, Repentigny, Saint-Eustache and Terrebonne police departments and the Lac des Deux-Montagnes Police Force are participating in the Synergie project. The pilot project could become permanent according to the results obtained during the next month.

Targeted Synergies will also be conducted in other regions of Quebec where bikers are very active, particularly in Saguenay, Quebec City and Estrie, over the weekend. Permanent projects could also be created in these regions in the near future.


Canada - BN.

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