LPD Blue October

Seat belts save lives

A car accident at the intersection of Chomedey Blvd. and the A-440 service road could have turned out worse. One vehicle in which a small family was riding southward on Chomedey Blvd. was violently struck by a Mazda Protégé coming off the autoroute. The 25-year-old female driver, who had a green light, was driving along when the Mazda burned a red light and collided with her. Three occupants of the first vehicle, the driver, his wife and their two-year-old child, were all wearing seat belts, and suffered only scratches and minor injuries. However, a woman who was in the passenger seat of the vehicle that ran the red, wasn’t as lucky. Not being buckled in at the moment of impact, she was ejected from the vehicle. Much as she suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a double fracture of the pelvis, she is now stable and doctors don’t fear for her life, even if she will carry scars from the accident. “With all the campaigns to raise awareness about wearing seat belts that we have done, I don’t understand how people continue not to buckle up,” says Cst. Franco DiGenova of the Laval Police Department’s department of public affairs. A man driving the Mazda was arrested for dangerous driving and criminal negligence. Meanwhile, the woman was rushed to hospital for treatment, and a young child travelling with them was taken in by family members.

Playing with fire

The Sainte-Rose Golf Club, located at 1400 Matawa St., was the target of arsonists, whose incendiary handywork caused considerable material damage. On Oct. 14 around 7 p.m., an electric golf cart was torched, possibly by young vandals out looking for kicks. The cart that caught fire was next to an area containing maintenance equipment and other carts. The blaze spread quickly, resulting in more than $40,000 in damage. The owner of the club, who had suffered vandalism before on his property, had taken steps to prevent it from happening again, by installing video cameras among other things. All the same, the fire department reported earlier this week that two other similar incidents happened on the weekend of Oct. 16 and 17.

The good life ends for some dope dealers

A police enquiry that had been underway for the past year culminated with the Escouade régionale mixte (ERM) Rive-Nord (a specialized police division) closing down an important marijuana trafficking network.
On Oct. 13, more than 300 police officers from the Sûreté du Québec, the RCMP and several municipal police forces, worked together under the supervision of François Morin of Lachenaie, commander of the ERM Rive-Nord, and executed 34 warrants all at the same time, in several different places on the North Shore. This well-planned operation resulted in the arrest of 36 individuals involved in a highly-organized drug dealing network.
In Laval, five sites were raided, one of which was on 40th Ave. and one on Marien St. On Mille-Îles Blvd., two buildings were searched, one of which was a house worth $1.5 million. A shed on Montée Masson that rented out space was also targeted. The owner of that site has not been implicated, even though one of his spaces was rented by traffickers. The owner of a helicopter stored on the site was also arrested.
The illicit drugs in question were destined for Newfoundland, Labrador and New York State in the U.S., accounting for the involvement of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from the U.S. Police estimate that the network was capable of producing 1,000 pounds or marijuana per month, for an estimated profit of more than $1 million monthly. “At the start of the inquiry, the players in this network were working with biker gangs,” said Lt. Daniel Guérin of the Laval Police. “But that came to an end when the bikers were all arrested in Operation Shark.”

A painful wakeup call for a Mustang owner

On Oct. 14 around a quarter after midnight, a resident of 2435 Alban St. in Saint-François was awakened by noise coming from outside. Looking out the window to see what was up, he had the unpleasant surprise of seeing that his car, a convertible 2001 Mustang, was on fire. Despite the intervention of the Laval Fire Department, the vehicle was completely destroyed. While there’s no doubt the blaze was of criminal origin, the police can’t figure out the cause. “We think it was a Molotov cocktail that was thrown at the vehicle, but since the car was completely destroyed, the glass from the container got mixed in with the rest of the car’s debris,” suggested Cst. DiGenova. The loss has been estimated at more than $15,000.

Quebec drug bust has Newfoundland and Labrador ties

A Quebec police force is releasing details about a major drug bust Wednesday and its connection to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Some 300 police officers carried out drug raids across Quebec on Wednesday as part of a police operation that started before dawn in several municipalities, including Laval and parts of Montreal and Quebec City.
Police executed 34 search warrants, confiscated 23 cars and seized over 400 pounds of marijuana.
Laval Police Lieutenant Daniel Guérin, who speaks for the integrated force, said some of the drugs were headed east.
"We arrested one person going on the highway through Quebec. He was going to Newfoundland. We have found some schedules and plannings to go through the ferry and he was probably going to meet someone in Newfoundland," said Guérin. "Sixty pounds of marijuana was probably for consumption in Newfoundland and Labrador."
Guérin said no arrests have been made in Newfoundland as yet in connection with the bust, but the investigation continues. He estimated the drug ring was earning $1 million a month.