TRACKING THE GUNS
Factory owner to learn fate
The owner of a factory in LaSalle who was convicted last month of trafficking in prohibited semiautomatic pistols will learn on Thursday how much time he will have to serve behind bars for producing firearms that made their way into the hands of organized crime figures.
Jean-Pierre Huot, 62, was convicted by a jury on six charges that his company, Perfection Métal, sold Tec-9-type semi-automatic pistols despite claiming he was merely making paintball guns — even though they were equipped with silencers. Pierre Larivière, the company ’s vice-president, was acquitted in the same trial.
During sentencing arguments held before Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau at the Montreal courthouse earlier this month, prosecutor Philippe Vallières-Roland asked that Huot be sentenced to a 10-year prison term for selling guns to people he knew were involved in organized crime. Defence lawyer Robert Bellefeuille recommended a five-year prison term.
To support the Crown’s argument, Vallières-Roland presented a list of events where pistols, which ballistics experts determined shared the same characteristics as those made by Perfection Métal, were either used in Mob hits, seized during drug trafficking investigations or found abandoned in public areas in Quebec and Ontario. The following is a list of some of the more significant events:
March 27, 2014
■The Montreal police recovered an Adidas bag with five Tec-9-type firearms inside it in the parking lot of an apartment building on Jules Poitras Blvd. in the St-Laurent borough, near the Montpellier train station.
April 22, 2014
■Marcel Raymond, now 47, was shot as he arrived at his home in Richelieu. He was struck in the chest but managed to make it inside his home where he called 911. He was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery several times. Doctors recovered a bullet during one of the operations, and a spent shell was found near Raymond’s home. Both are believed to have come from a firearm manufactured by Perfection Métal. Raymond, who has a lengthy criminal record, was sentenced earlier this year to a 90-day prison term he is able to serve on weekends after he pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and hashish with the intent to traffic.
Aug. 1, 2014
■Street gang leader Ducarme
Joseph was fatally shot while he was walking along Michel-Ange St. in the Villeray— St-Michel—Parc Extension borough. At the time, Joseph was believed to have been involved in the 2009 murder of Nick (The Ritz) Rizzuto, the eldest son of then-Montreal Mafia leader Vito Rizzuto. Police had information from an informant that Rizzuto wanted Joseph to suffer if anyone in his organization got his hands on him. The police recovered two pistols left near the crime scene which are believed to have been made at Huot’s factory. A ballistics analysis revealed one of the firearms provided a match to a spent shell casing recovered following an attempted murder carried out in Rivière-des-Prairies on Nov. 12, 2013.
Feb. 11, 2015
■Mario Bourgeois, 53, was fatally shot as he exited a halfway house on 15th Ave. in St-Michel. The victim was out on day parole while serving a 15-year sentence for having sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl and two women. The shooter left the firearm behind before fleeing the area, and an analysis of the pistol revealed it shared the characteristics of those made at the factory in LaSalle.
March 23, 2015
■Montreal police officers carrying out a search warrant at an address on Lake St. in Dollarddes-Ormeaux found drugs and five firearms, including a Tec-9-type pistol that had the characteristics of those made at Perfection Métal. West Island resident Ian Smith, 46, pleaded guilty to charges related to the firearms and was sentenced, on April 27, 2016, to an overall 41-month prison term.
June 25, 2015
■The wife of a Laval businessman was on the balcony of their home in Laval when she noticed a sport utility vehicle pulled up in front of the house. A man in the passenger seat pointed a firearm out his window and opened fire before the vehicle sped away. Six bullets struck the house, but the woman was not injured. An analysis on two of the bullets revealed they were fired by a pistol that police believe was made at Perfection Métal.
Dec. 23, 2015
■Marco Ruest, a man who was on parole while serving a sentence for having robbed the Birks jewelry store in Pointe-Claire in 2004, walked into a Birks store in a mall in Laval and carried out a similar holdup. He made off with more than $300,000 in jewelry. When the police searched his home in Montreal, they found a .45-calibre handgun and a Tec-9-type firearm that “shared all the characteristics” of the weapons made at Perfection Métal. Ruest, 53, pleaded guilty to the armed robbery last year and was sentenced to a 15-year prison term.
Aug. 1, 2016
■Marco Pizzi, 48, a man with alleged ties to the Montreal Mafia, and more specifically to one of its alleged leaders, Stefano Sollecito, 50, was driving along Grande-Allée Ave., near Prince-Albert St., when a car driven by Kevin Rochebrun collided with his from behind. When Pizzi got out to see the damage on his car, two men jumped out of the other vehicle. Both were carrying firearms. Pizzi ran to a nearby park where children from a day camp were playing and avoided an apparent attempt on his life. Pizzi refused to give the Montreal police a statement, but the investigation led police to a BMW parked at Rochebrun’s residence. They found three firearms, including a Tec-9-type pistol equipped with a large loading clip and a silencer. Investigators also found materials used to put together a Molotov cocktail. Rochebrun, 27, is currently serving a three-year sentence he received last year after having pleaded guilty to five charges related to what was found in the BMW.
Jan. 11, 2017
■While investigating a drug dealer named Catalin Vinersar, 51, the Montreal police carried out a search warrant and found 52 grams of cocaine along with six firearms, including one police believe was made by Perfection Métal.
Feb. 15, 2017
■Réal Renaud, now 46, was shot while using a small vehicle to remove snow in Verdun, near the intersection of Gordon St. and Bannantyne Ave. The victim, who was known to police, was struck twice but survived the attempt on his life. The shooter, a masked man in a Chrysler Town and Country minivan, was never arrested. A spent shell casing recovered at the scene is believed to have come from a firearm made by Perfection Métal.
May 25, 2017
■While investigating a suspected drug dealer, the Montreal police carried out a search warrant in an apartment on Havre-de-l’Île St. and found more than a kilogram of heroin and seven firearms, including two Tec-9-type pistols, three loading clips and three silencers. The suspect, a 47-year-old man from St-Calixte, currently faces 18 charges at the Montreal courthouse.