Ex-Hells Angel Admits plot to kill Mob leader
Former Hells Angel admits conspiring to eliminate Mafia leader while jailed
Former Hells Angel Maurice (Mom) Boucher admitted on Tuesday that he hatched a plot to kill one of the few criminals in Quebec who can claim to be his equal in terms of notoriety.
Boucher, 64, pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Raynald Desjardins, a well-known leader in the Montreal Mafia who played a leading role in a conspiracy to kill Mafioso Salvatore Montagna back in 2011.
Boucher — who was behind bars when the plot was hatched in 2015, and is serving life sentences for issuing orders that led to the deaths of two prison guards and the attempted murder of another in 1997 — planned to kill Desjardins after Desjardins admitted to plotting to kill Montagna.
During a hearing at the Gouin courthouse, Boucher had to shout “Guilty!” when Judge Éric Downs asked him to confirm that he was pleading guilty to the conspiracy. This was because a microphone in the enclosed prisoner’s dock where Boucher was seated was not on when he first responded to Downs’s question.
The former biker’s hair has gone completely grey and he has gained considerable weight since the 1990s, when he used to control a multimillion-dollar drug-trafficking empire and wasn’t shy to show off his leather jacket with the Hells Angels’ infamous death-head logo on the back.
The failed plan, proposed by Boucher, was to assassinate Desjardins at the Ste-Annedes-Plaines penitentiary when Desjardins was supposed to be transferred to the regional reception centre — where new federal inmates are sent before they are assigned a penitentiary — according to a summary of facts entered into court record Tuesday.
Desjardins pleaded guilty on July 6, 2015, to conspiring to assassinate Montagna, who was killed in November 2011. Desjardins was supposed to be sentenced in December 2015.
Boucher was serving his sentence at another part of the SteAnne-des-Plaines penitentiary at the time. He used a person who visited him to send a message to another person on the outside that he wanted Desjardins killed. Boucher used a coded reference while talking to the visitor. He correctly assumed their conversation was being recorded.
“Euh. In the affairs of the Mafia ... OK? If he comes here I know someone who can kill him, if he wants,” Boucher is quoted as having told the visitor.
“Because, to me, (Desjardins) will be brought here (at Ste-Annedes-Plaines). If he comes here, we can kill him.”
The document mentions that when he said this, Boucher made a stabbing gesture. He also made a gesture suggesting that there would be money involved if Desjardins were killed.
Boucher’s motives for wanting Desjardins killed are not mentioned in the summary of facts. An RCMP investigation dubbed Project Jaggy revealed that Boucher and Desjardins communicated with each other often, in 1993, while the Mafia and the Hells Angels plotted to smuggle large amounts of cocaine into Canada together.
Desjardins is alleged to have been a part of the Montreal Mafia for decades. He was once considered a very close associate of Mob boss Vito Rizzuto. In 2010, while Rizzuto was incarcerated in the United States, Desjardins is believed to have formed an alliance with Montagna in an effort to take control of the Montreal Mafia.
The alliance fell apart, and Desjardins plotted to have Montagna killed after someone tried to kill Desjardins in Laval in September 2011.
What Boucher did not know was that the sentencing stage of Desjardins’s case would be plagued by delays — he was sentenced a year later than expected. That meant his transfer from the Montreal Detention Centre to a federal penitentiary took much longer than anyone following his case in the media would have expected.
On July 21, 2015, the same person visited Boucher again and told him the person on the outside confirmed that Desjardins should be killed.
According to the summary of facts: “The investigation demonstrated that on Sept. 9, 2015, a Sûreté du Québec undercover agent showed up (at the residence of Boucher’s contact on the outside) and said that his brother had the contract (to kill) Desjardins.” The undercover agent was prepared to testify that, based on his reaction and gestures, Boucher’s man on the outside was aware of the plot and that he was supposed to be the person who paid the contract.”
By pleading guilty, Boucher avoided having a jury trial that was supposed to begin with jury selection next week.
The case will enter the sentencing stage on May 11.