Alleged boss renounces crime, Quebec
MONTREAL • A man who was once considered to be part of a new generation of criminals to lead Montreal’s West End Gang informed the Parole Board of Canada he has no interest in returning to Quebec.
Shane Kenneth ( Wheels) Maloney was part of a group of six men alleged to have been leaders among the people who tried to take control of drug trafficking in Quebec after almost all of the Hells Angels in the province were rounded up in 2009 and charged with a series of murders carried out during Quebec’s biker war between 1994 and 2002.
In 2012, Maloney was arrested, along with more than 130 people, as part of Operation Loquace, the probe that revealed who tried to fill the void in the biker gang’s absence. He pleaded guilty to charges related to buying 25 kilograms of cocaine from an undercover agent and storing enough firearms and explosives to start a small war during Operation Loquace.
In 2017, Maloney received a 10-year sentence, but when the time he had already served was factored in he was left with a prison term of five years and nine months.
Earlier this week, following a hearing held at a federal penitentiary in Ontario, Maloney was granted full parole.
According to a written summary of the decision, Maloney, 43, told the board he plans to reside in British Columbia, the province he moved to with his mother when he was 12. He grew up in B.C. and at the age of 20 was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him a paraplegic. The summary notes that through an insurance settlement Maloney was able to invest in businesses and properties. In 2005, he began collecting firearms.
“At your hearing ( on Tuesday) you indicated the primary motive for committing your offences was financial gain,” the author of the summary wrote. “You attribute some of this to your early years growing up with your mother in poverty, but primarily you liked having money. You now acknowledge that the risk/reward ratio of living a criminal lifestyle in no longer worth it.
“Towards the end of your crime cycle, you were starting to get weary of the lifestyle. At your hearing, you expressed relief that you no longer had to look over your shoulder or worry about being followed. You do not miss the stress of your previous (crimes) and you want to live a simpler life. You have disengaged from your previous associates and you have relocated to another province to avoid all prior associations.”
Maloney told the board he has “denounced” his former lifestyle because he found serving time behind bars while having to use a wheelchair very difficult. He said he plans to move into a wheelchair accessible apartment in Vancouver and that he has a job waiting for him. He has a pension through his insurance settlement and has plans to open a motor engine business.