Affidavits trace fall of former biker gang police investigator Benoit Roberge.
Hells Angel’s prison escape, wiretaps led to arrest of Roberge
Benoit Roberge, the former biker gang police investigator who pleaded guilty last month to selling sensitive information to a member of the Hells Angels, is expected to learn Friday if a judge will agree his crimes merit an eight-year prison sentence.
Roberge’s arrest on Oct. 5 last year shocked many in the police and justice milieu because of the reputation he had built for years, in part, as an expert witness who testified in many criminal trials involving members of the same biker gang.
Roberge, 50, had just retired from the Montreal police in August 2013 and had started a new job with Revenue Quebec. Anyone seeking an explanation behind what motivated Roberge to risk everything by selling information to René “Balloune” Charlebois, a Hells Angel serving time for murdering a police informant, can look to two versions presented in court on March 13, when Roberge pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of a criminal organization and breach of trust.
On one hand, as part of a set of facts the prosecution and the defence agreed could be read into the court record, Robert pocketed $115,000 while he supplied Charlebois with information concerning ongoing police investigations. On the other, Roberge testified he decided to sell information to Charlebois because the life of one of his relatives had been threatened.
According to affidavits filed as part of the Sûreté du Québec’s investigation into Roberge, the retired police investigator probably knew the walls were closing in on him more than two weeks before he was arrested.
The following are some of the details contained in the affidavits: Sept. 14, 2013 — At 8 p.m. staff doing a “surprise count” of inmates at the Montée Saint-François Institution, a minimum-security penitentiary in Laval, noted that Charlebois, a longtime member of the Hells Angels serving a life sentence for murder, was present. Three hours later, he was nowhere to be found when a regular count was done. Because Montée Saint-François is a minimum-security facility, Charlebois only needed to walk out to escape.
A member of the Sûreté du Québec arrived at the penitentiary later to take the complaint. The officer noted the names of all Charlebois’s contacts, a list of who visited him and a list of the hundreds of calls the Hells Angel made while at the facility. Sept. 16, 2013 — An analysis was done of calls Charlebois made between Aug. 15 and Sept. 14, 2013. One thing that stood out was that Charlebois made 11 calls to one cellular telephone number during that period. An SQ investigator called the number and learned it belonged to Roberge. The SQ met with Roberge after making this surprise discovery. Sept. 17, 2013 — The SQ obtained a 30-day warrant to secretly record Roberge’s calls on his cellphone line. The following day, they obtained an- other warrant allowing them to get a list of all of Roberge’s calls from his service provider. The first analysis done of the list revealed no links to Charlebois. Sept. 18, 2013 — Roberge agreed to meet with the SQ again, this time at their offices in Mascouche. The meeting lasted nearly two hours. A summary of what the SQ took away from that meeting was redacted from a copy of the affidavit obtained by the The Gazette. Sept. 20, 2013 — The SQ had begun physical surveillance on a man Charlebois called frequently while the biker was at Montée Saint-François. The man (whose identity is protected by a courtordered publication ban) was tailed as he picked up a bag of firewood at a hardware store and then headed to a grocery store. The man, accompanied by a friend whose name also cannot be published, stopped at a St-Hubert restaurant and ordered some takeout.
The police followed the pair to a boat-launch in Sorel, the same city where the Hells Angels founded their first chapter in Canada in 1977. When the vehicle returned to the road 30 minutes later, the police noticed the man Charlebois called frequently was no longer inside it. About an hour later, the SQ learned a cellphone they suspected Charlebois was in possession of had been used near Îleaux-Fantômes, an island near Sorel accessible only by boat. Sept. 25, 2013 — The SQ learned that a new SIM card had been placed in the same cellphone and was used to make a call from Île-Guévremont, another island near Sorel. The island has only two residences on it and is connected to Île-aux-Fantômes by a bridge. Sept. 26 2013 — With the SQ certain Charlebois was on Île-Guèvremont, officers moved in on one of the two residences. According to an SQ affidavit, Charlebois took his life before they could arrest him. Sept. 30, 2013 — The man Charlebois called frequently from Montée Saint-François was arrested after being interrogated by the SQ. He admitted to helping Charlebois while the Hells Angel was a fugitive, but he also revealed he had information on “a member of the Montreal police.” Oct. 4, 2013 — The man agreed to provide the SQ with a sworn statement recorded on video. He revealed that shortly before Charlebois committed suicide they recorded four videos, of Charlebois talking into a camera, in a chalet on Île-aux-Fantômes. The man said the last video they recorded was intended to be Charlebois’s declaration “that the justice system was corrupt.” In that final video, Charlebois alleged Roberge had been selling him information for two years. Charlebois’s friend said the Hells Angel planned to control drug trafficking in western Montreal and was going to manipulate Roberge into doing it for him. As part of that plan, in Oct. 2012, Charlebois set up a procedure where his friend could record telephone conversations between Charlebois and Roberge by using a third phone outside the penitentiary. The friend said Charlebois somehow supplied Roberge with a cellphone so Roberge could make the sensitive calls on weekends from his chalet in the Eastern Townships.
Charlebois’s friend also said that one week after Charlebois left Montée SaintFrançois, the Hells Angel informed Roberge their calls were recorded. The friend said Roberge panicked and expressed concern over losing his wife (a prosecutor) and his pension. The same day Charlebois’s friend made his statement to the police, experts confirmed the voices heard in the recorded conversations were indeed those of the Hells Angel and Roberge. Oct. 5, 2013 — The SQ used an undercover officer to contact Roberge posing as someone who knew Charlebois and was in possession of their recorded conversations. The undercover officer demanded $50,000 in exchange for the recordings. Roberge agreed to meet with the undercover officer, but said he could only pay $10,000. Roberge was followed and, 30 minutes before the arranged meeting, he met with a man the SQ referred to as “an accomplice” in their affidavit. The meeting was in the parking lot of a Bureau en Gros at the Dix-30 shopping complex in Brossard, close to where Roberge arranged to later meet the undercover officer. Roberge was arrested after he exchanged money for the recordings with the undercover officer. The accomplice, whose name cannot be published, was not charged in connection with what transpired that day. Nov. 11, 2013 — An affidavit filed to obtain one of the warrants reveals that roughly one month after Roberge was arrested, a guard at the Rivière-des-Prairies Detention Centre intercepted a letter Roberge tried to send while detained there. The two-page letter, written in blue ink, caught the attention of the guard who was assigned to the routine opening of all letters flowing in and out of the detention centre that day. According to the affidavit, the guard called the SQ “because (the letter) contained sensitive information.”
The name of the person Roberge tried to send the letter to is redacted from the copy of the affidavit obtained by The Gazette. But in requesting permission from a judge to seize it, the SQ noted Roberge still had knowledge of “privileged information which, if transmitted, could place the life and security of people in danger.”