Police arrest member of alleged drug cartel
Charges relating to Superstore double murder expected, sources say
A man already charged as part of a Calgary drug cartel has been arrested for a brazen daylight double murder in a southeast Superstore parking lot.
Postmedia sources say Blais Delaire was picked up by city police from the Calgary Remand Centre, where he was in custody after being arrested during Project Arbour, an investigation by detectives from ALERT (Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team).
Delaire was originally charged with weapons offences after Colin Reitberger, 23, and Anees Amr, 26, were gunned down in front of shoppers in the parking lot of the Real Canadian Superstore on 130th Avenue S.E. on May 17.
Postmedia sources say Delaire is expected to face homicide charges when he appears before a justice of the peace.
Christian Joffre Ouellette, 20, is charged with two counts of firstdegree murder relating to the incident. Sources say he was the enforcer for the Calgary cartel.
Police have said they believe the shooting stemmed from preexisting grievances between the accused and Reitberger.
Details of the Calgary gang, which had ties to notorious Mexican cartels, were unveiled last month after ALERT wrapped up a year-long investigation into cross-border drug smuggling and weapons offences.
They were aided by Calgary city police, the RCMP and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
ALERT detectives said the Calgary gang would smuggle MMBA and pot across the border into the United States and trade it for meth. Police don’t have an estimate of the money involved but said it would be multi-millions.
The plot began to unravel in 2016 when a pickup truck returning to Canada was stopped by police in Utah carrying more than 100 kilograms of meth, in what was called that state’s biggest ever meth bust.
Three Calgary men — used as drug mules — were in the truck. Two have been sentenced to time served and a third is awaiting trial.
Postmedia learned one of the drug mules was the son of a Calgary Police Service officer, leading to the investigation being conducted in extraordinary secrecy.
Facing 46 drug, weapons and trafficking charges are Calgarians Drew Mann, 25, Matthew Spiers, 24, Bryan Livingston, 32, Delaire, 26, and alleged ringleader Allistair Chapman, 25.
Two Calgary drug houses were also shut down, one with a fentanyl press capable of making a staggering 18,000 pills an hour. Along with the drugs, police seized two shotguns, three rifles and body armour.
Police allege Reitberger’s murder was actually a hit ordered by Chapman as part of an ongoing dispute, and that Amr, described as a friend of the victim and uninvolved in the drug trade, was merely an unintended victim.
Investigators in the Superstore case continue to seek the driver of a red Dodge Durango believed to have dropped Ouellette at a Freeport Boulevard N.E. gas station following the murders. The vehicle is described as a red Dodge Durango SLT, likely a 2004 to 2006 model, with a sunroof.