Former Hells Angel leader leaving halfway house
A man who was once one of the most powerful Hells Angels in Quebec gained another step toward freedom on the sentence he is serving for plotting to murder rival gang members. The Parole Board of Canada agreed he no longer needs to reside at a halfway house.
During Quebec’s biker war — a conflict between the Hells Angels and an alliance of rival criminal organizations that ran between 1994 and 2002 — Normand Robitaille, 49, graduated from the lowest ranks of the biker gang to become, by the late 1990s, one of its key decision makers.
In 2003, he pleaded guilty to being part of a general conspiracy to murder members of rival gangs like the Rock Machine and the Bandidos and was sentenced to 17 years on top of the time he already served following his arrest in Operation Springtime 2001.
Evidence presented at trial in cases related to the police investigation revealed that by 2001, Robitaille operated within the Hells Angels at a level similar to that of Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the leader of the gang’s elite Nomads chapter based in Montreal. Besides being involved in top level decisions on cocaine and hashish trafficking, he was also in charge of recruiting new members for the gang.
After he began serving the sentence, Robitaille swore he quit the gang and, in 2009, the Sûreté du Québec agreed that, by all appearances, he is no longer a Hells Angel. Despite this, strict conditions were placed on Robitaille’s statuary release in 2015, including one requiring he reside at a halfway house while he tried to drum up business as a legitimate businessman.
In 2016, his release was suspended and he was returned to a penitentiary twice after Correctional Service Canada raised questions, in February 2016, about how he was spending his time when he wasn’t at a halfway house and, in July 2016, when his parole officer was advised Robitaille might be charged with assault.
According to a summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada this week, Robitaille attended a wedding, held in June 2016, and another guest told the convict he wasn’t welcome at the reception. The exchange became heated and a third person, who was inebriated, grabbed Robitaille. The former member of the world’s most notorious outlaw biker gang later told the parole board he merely shoved the drunken wedding guest away from him and left the reception before things got out of hand.
Robitaille was released from a penitentiary last year after having explained his side of the story to the parole board. But he was required to return to a halfway house. Since February, Robitaille has questioned the need to live at such a place while arguing he has been transparent with his parole officer.
In its decision delivered this week, the Parole Board of Canada agreed with Robitaille.
“(Y)ou have made a significant change in your attitude and in your collaboration with your case-management team (which prepares an offender for release),” the author of the summary of the decision wrote. “You have maintained a positive attitude over the past year and you seem to have respected all of the rules attached to your (conditional release).”
Robitaille’s sentence will expire in 2020.