More arrests likely in helicopter prison escape
Police trying to locate pilot, condo renter
The manhunt for three Orsainville Prison fugitives ended Sunday but police are still tracking the helicopter pilot who helped them break out of jail on June 7.
A SWAT team descended on a luxury condo in Old Montreal Sunday morning, rousing the escaped prisoners from their sleep and arresting them without facing much resistance. The trio were facing gangsterism and murder charges at the time of their escape, and police believe they were trying to leave the country.
“We found $100,000 in cash when we went (into the condo),” said Lieutenant Michel Brunet of the Sûreté du Québec. “We think that money was to buy some food, buy some clothes and to try and leave the country.”
The St-André St. condominium was rented by Simon Bédard, a convicted drug dealer who survived a brazen attempt on his life during Quebec’s biker wars. Though Bédard, 46, is not yet considered an accomplice in the escape, he’s proved elusive to police — who are looking to question him about the escape. Police searched his Villeray apartment on Sunday but he remains at large.
The fugitives were taken into a Quebec City courtroom under tight security Monday morning to face charges related to their escape.
Yves Denis, 35, Serge Pomerleau, 49, and Denis Lefebvre, 53, were charged with escaping from a provincial detention centre and escaping lawful custody. The men, all reportedly linked to biker gangs, were in handcuffs and sporting beards when they entered the courtroom. They were transported in separate police convoys, and the public and journalists were searched before being allowed into the courtroom. A bail hearing is set for Thursday for all three men.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne also suspended two of his earlier rulings that eased the men’s conditions behind bars before their bold escape on June 7. He took away computer privileges for Pomerleau and revoked permission allowing the men to circulate together in the prison yard.
Details of the arguments in court cannot be reported because of a publication ban.
Beyond his reputed gang ties, it’s unclear exactly how Bédard is connected to the fugitives.
In 1995, Bédard lost a leg when a remote-control bomb demolished his vehicle near his home in the Quebec City suburb of Lévis. Bédard, a longtime member of the Mercenaries motorcycle gang, a Hell’s Angels affiliate, was sitting in the driver’s seat when the bomb went off.
Bédard is a native of LacEtchemin, about 80 kilometres southeast of Quebec City. He was released from an Abitibi prison earlier this year after being convicted of drug trafficking in February 2013.
Bédard previously served a six year jail sentence for trafficking drugs alongside members of the Bandidos biker gang.
Police would not say how they tracked the three fugitives. However, a spokesman for the SQ, Sgt. Ronald McInnis, said further arrests are likely. Police are trying to locate the helicopter pilot.
The Quebec government has ordered an internal investigation into the breakout. The administrative probe will also examine a similar escape last year. In March 2013, two inmates grabbed onto a rope dropped from a helicopter at the St-Jérôme detention centre and flew away, before being quickly recaptured.