Pubdate: Thu, 24 May 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Paul Cherry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

SQ, RCMP BUST POT EXPORT RING

Quebec, N.B. Raids. Police Say Traffickers Were Smuggling Locally 
Grown Crops Into Maine

More than 60 people in Quebec and New Brunswick were arrested 
yesterday as police cracked down on a drug trafficking ring with 
alleged ties to the Hells Angels that exported marijuana to the United States.

Among the people arrested by the Surete du Quebec was Sylvain 
Decelles, 46, of Laval, who has been tied to the biker gang by police 
for years. In 2004, he received a probationary sentence for producing 
marijuana in the Montmagny region.

Police sources described Decelles as an important figure among the 
people arrested. As of late yesterday afternoon, 68 people had been 
arrested and another five were sought on warrants.

During the Hells Angels megatrials a few years ago, informants said 
Decelles's brother Alain worked for the gang's elite Nomads chapter. 
The brothers were also linked to the Hells Angels when the SQ made a 
similar roundup of traffickers in 1998.

As part of the police operation yesterday, Sylvain Decelles's house 
on Bellemare St. in Laval's Fabreville district was searched. The SQ 
and RCMP officers in New Brunswick carried out 34 search warrants, 
seizing five guns, 613 grams of cocaine and more than 2,300 marijuana plants.

The SQ said the network produced marijuana in various parts of Quebec 
and shipped the crops to New Brunswick, where they were smuggled into Maine.

"It is a large network that has been operating for years," Surete du 
Quebec Constable Claude Ross said. "We're talking about growers and exporters."

Ross said the investigation was headed by a regional SQ unit in 
Rimouski, but the operation stretched into New Brunswick. More than 
370 officers and investigators from the SQ and RCMP took part in the 
operation, dubbed Project Aorte/Julien. The investigation began in 2004.

Some of the arrests in Quebec were made in Laval and the Laurentians, 
but most of the suspects lived around Rimouski. Many of them appeared 
in Quebec Court at Riviere du Loup yesterday afternoon.

Ross said they face charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to 
traffic, exporting marijuana and committing crimes for the benefit of 
a criminal organization.

On March 21, as part of the same investigation, the Surete du Quebec 
arrested 17 people and seized more than 9,500 marijuana plants as 
well as 93 kilograms of marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom