Six raids by Montreal police, SQ, Thursday in connection with murders committed by organized crime

Six raids were executed by two police forces early Thursday morning in the Montreal area, in connection with alleged homicides by organized crime members.

The raids were carried out by officers from the Montreal police force (SPVM) and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in Laval, Mirabel, Rosemère and Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot. Five other similar interventions were carried out since last Tuesday in Vaudreuil_Dorion, as well as in the Montreal boroughs of Anjou, Lachine and Montreal-North.

The investigation is aimed at gathering evidence to solve several murders linked to organized crime that occurred in Montreal and on the North Shore from the mid-1990s to now.

Police report that they are particularly interested in solving the murders of people who were mistakenly targeted. These include Lida Phon, 32, who was murdered in a Laval residence in August 2012; Domenico Facchini, 37, who was shot dead in a café in Montreal’s Saint-Léonard borough in December 2012; and Nicolas Lavoie-Cloutier, 18, killed near Montée Major in Terrebonne in June 2018.

The SPVM and SQ claim that certain individuals associated with notorious groups such as the Italian Mafia, the Hells Angels and criminal street gangs are targeted by the investigation.

The joint investigation is ongoing, and the two police forces invite anyone with information to contact police anonymously and confidentially.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 7, 2023.