Biker Trials, The (32 page)

Things were going well until Jalbert was arrested again and Gagné was left to run the business for both of them.

“When Jalbert went in for the second time, the war had just about started. So we had a choice. Go with the Hells Angels or go with the Rock Machine. And the Rock Machine had a lot of guys in groups like the Palmers and the Alliance, things like that. So Tony told me that he had met Mr. Maurice Boucher,” Gagné said during the Beliveau trial, explaining how it was Jalbert who had arranged the fateful introduction.

Jalbert's first instinct was to join the Hells Angels' side in the war. He instructed Gagné that they should start buying their drugs from Boucher, and he gave Gagné a contact to set up the meeting. Before that, the pair had been buying from whomever was known to be carrying the best quality cocaine. They dealt with the Mafia, the Hells Angels, the Pelletier Clan and important independent dealers like Jean Duquaire, who would later become a member of the Rock Machine.

The Hells Angels had already demonstrated their power to Gagné. Their underlings in the Rockers robbed one of his apartments, commonly known as a
piquerie
in the milieu, relieving him of about 15 hits of cocaine. That was about the most cocaine
the clever dealer would leave in one spot at any given time. Even though Gagné had lost less than three grams of cocaine, it still stung, and he insisted on confronting the thieves, which was easy because the Rockers had let it be known they were behind the heist. Gagné contacted the gang and got his drugs back with an explanation that the Rockers didn't know who was running his drug den. Shortly after meeting one of the Rockers, Gagné paged the contact he was given by Jalbert. He said Boucher called him back within a day and set up a meeting.

The two met in an alley where Gagné boasted that he was able to move three kilos of cocaine a month in Hochelaga Maisonneuve, Boucher's stomping grounds before he became a high-level drug dealer. They arranged a deal where Gagné would pay for a kilo of cocaine with cash and then take a second
sur la bras
, slang among drug dealers for credit. Gagné left Boucher with an address, and shortly afterward, a man carrying what appeared to be a case of beer showed up. Inside the box were the two kilos of cocaine. Gagné said he paid Boucher $34,000 the next day. They continued to deal together, but sometimes Boucher was out of stock. It was then, when Gagné was looking for more cocaine, that it was made clear to him that he had to deal with the Hells Angels exclusively.

“After a while, I wanted more coke, and I went to see Mom, and Mom said, 'Look, you know who is with us' because he didn't have any. He said, 'Get it from a guy who is with us.' I went to see Pierre Quintal because he was getting it from Steven [Bull] Bertrand and Steven Bertrand was a friend of Maurice Boucher. In the Hochelaga Maisonneuve neighborhood, everyone knew each other before the war started. When I said I knew Sylvain Pelletier, it was because I had bought coke from him. Before the war started he was wearing an Alliance ring,” Gagné told the jury.

“What was the Alliance?” asked Crown prosecutor François Briere.

“The Alliance was a group that formed at the start of the war with the Pelletier family. They wore rings. They were a part of a group of independents who did not want [to buy drugs] from the Hells Angels,” Gagné said, adding he was asked to join the Alliance. “I never wanted to join the Alliance or the Rock Machine because I knew they were going to lose.”

“To lose?” Briere asked.

“The war.”

“Okay and this was in 1993?”

“Yes.”

Gagné said that after they had been dealing together for a while, Boucher seemed impressed by his ability to move cocaine. At around this time, Jalbert was still serving his sentence. Gagné was faithfully forwarding his partner's share of profits from their business to an elderly woman — Jalbert had introduced her to Gagné as his aunt. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the parole board had taken note that Jalbert seemed to spend a lot of his free time, while out on day parole, at an aunt's house. He went there to eat on weekdays and then returned to his halfway house at night. On weekends, he would sleep over at her place.

The business relationship with Jalbert deteriorated when Gagné was caught with a kilo of cocaine after selling a quarter-gram to an undercover cop. He was arrested and, Gagné said, Jalbert was not interested in paying his bail, having just gotten out of prison himself.

Gagné said he later learned that Jalbert had spent his time behind bars getting to know Jean Duquaire and had decided to join the Alliance. With no one else in the milieu to turn to, Gagné said he called Paul (Fon Fon) Fontaine from the Rockers and was told the gang would help him out. But when Jalbert caught wind of this, he rushed to pay off Gagné's bail instead.

Gagné said that when he got out, he and Jalbert had a meeting at a submarine restaurant. Jalbert lay down the law, saying
Gagné was responsible for $40,000 worth of cocaine they had lost in a seizure connected to Gagné's arrest. Jalbert also informed Gagné that they were no longer partners. The meeting grew increasingly tense as Gagné reminded his partner that he had swallowed losses that were Jalbert's fault. Gagné testified that Jalbert had once dumped 200 grams of cocaine because he mistakenly thought the cops were following him. Gagné also reminded Jalbert that he had helped him out while he was in prison by faithfully delivering the profits of their business to the elderly woman believed to be his aunt. The lines were already being drawn, so Gagné bluntly told Jalbert that he was going to buy his drugs from the Hells Angels.

Shortly after the messy meeting, a buddy of Gagné was released from the Bordeaux detention center. He informed Gagné that if he ended up convicted for selling the cocaine to the undercover cop, he should avoid the Bordeaux detention center because Alliance members like Jean Duquaire and Michel Boyer had his photo and were waiting for him.

“What did you do when you got that information?” prosecutor Briere asked.

“Well, then I called Tony Jalbert and I said, 'Hey, your buddies are waiting for me at Bordeaux?' and he said 'No, no, no, no.' I said,
'Hostie
, it's the photo of you and me and a Harley, so it's you who supplied it to them. They didn't get that from a box of Cracker Jacks.' He finally admitted that it was him,” Gagné said. At that point, Jalbert asked Gagné again if they were partners. Gagné replied that they were still partners until he paid Jalbert what he owed for the seized cocaine, but after that he was going to buy from the Hells Angels.

It would later become evident that Jalbert had completely switched over to the Alliance. In the years that followed, he became a member of the Rock Machine and was part of the gang when it was patched over by the Bandidos, an international gang
with chapters all over the world. Jalbert would end up being arrested again, late in the biker war, serving a five-year term for growing marijuana, drug trafficking and weapons possession. He was released from prison in late 2004 and corrections officials still believed him to be a Bandido.

But as their partnership was falling apart in 1994, Gagné pleaded guilty to selling the quarter-gram to the undercover cop and, as if determined by fate, was sent to the Bordeaux detention center where Jalbert had set him up. He was placed in the C wing, reserved for repeat offenders, and was quickly welcomed as he had been warned. Three members of the Alliance, Stéphane Morgan, Michel Boyer and Jean Duquaire, served as the welcome wagon. Gagné said the trio insisted on knowing which side of the war he was on. He lied and told them he wanted nothing to do with the war, that he just wanted to sell drugs.

“Duquaire [Le Français] took out a photo of Maurice Boucher, threw it to the ground and told me to piss on it. I didn't piss on it, so they beat me up,” Gagné said. Gagné said he responded, a little later, by storming into Duquaire's cell with a homemade pick and stabbing him several times, intent on killing him. Duquaire was sent to the hospital, while Gagné was bounced around detention centers all over Quebec, including one in Sorel, where he met up with Boucher again.

Boucher appeared to be very interested in having Gagné as part of his network. Whether it was Gagné's ability to move cocaine or the loyalty he had so violently demonstrated at Bordeaux, Boucher took a liking to Gagné and told him he'd look after him while he was in prison and that Gagné should look him up once he got out. Boucher put Gagné in contact with his son, Françis, who would make sure Gagné's prison cantine was well stocked with his favorite foods. Inmates are allowed to have a certain
amount of food kept at their detention center if they can afford it. Having a well-stocked cantine gives an inmate certain bargaining chips behind bars. It also breaks up the monotony of only eating prison food.

While they did time together, Gagné carried out the little tasks Boucher asked of him. One such task was mounting an inmates' protest when Boucher declared they were being fed shepherd's pie far too often. He requested a transfer to Boucher's wing but was refused. The pair would meet only when they were placed in the detention center's general population for exercise.

Andre Chouinard, a member of the Hells Angels' Nomads chapter.

After being bounced around to various detention centers, Gagné was released after serving more than two-thirds of his sentence. He testified that he was able to set up a meeting with Boucher almost immediately after his release. He paged Boucher's son and set up a face-to-face. The next day, Françis Boucher merely asked Gagné for his pager number and told him to wait. Mom Boucher contacted Gagné soon after and said they should meet at the building on Bennett Street that the Nomads chapter had turned into their hangout. Gagné recalled there was a used car dealership inside as well as a jewelry store. He said André Chouinard, who was one of Boucher's drug couriers at the time, Gilles Mathieu and Richard (Sugar) Lock used the building for their offices. Gagné also recalled that Chouinard would answer the phone with “Gestion Wow,” a company that Maurice Boucher owned.

Stéphane Gagné said that after hanging around the Bennett Street building for a while, he, Chouinard and Boucher went to a restaurant in the Plateau.

“It was there that Maurice Boucher said that he had big things for me. And he didn't say much more than that,” Gagné said. It was the “big things” that the prosecution wanted Gagné to tell the jury. What Gagné brought to the Beliveau trial was evidence of how the gang functioned, particularly when members of the Nomads chapter, and especially Boucher, plotted to eliminate their rivals.

After eating at the restaurant, Boucher and Gagné headed back to the Nomad hangout on Bennett Street. It was there that Gagné was first introduced to André (Toots) Tousignant. Gagné had known him as an independent drug dealer before the biker war started. Now, Tousignant was a Rocker and one of Boucher's most trusted lieutenants. They spent most of the day at the Bennett Street hangout, and then Tousignant, Gagné and Boucher drove to a location in the South Shore region across from Montreal Island. They left their pagers in their car, and Boucher and Tousignant went for a short walk while Gagné waited behind.

When the pair returned, Boucher used a hand gesture to ask Gagné if he had a gun. Gagné said he didn't. Boucher replied that there were some stored in the Bennett Street building, and told Gagné to stay close by because they might need him soon.

Gagné stayed with his parents and waited a few days until Boucher and Tousignant showed up. The trio packed into a car and headed for Verdun where Gagné finally learned of one of the “big things” Boucher had planned. Their first stop was at a garage in Verdun that Gagné would later learn was close to a Rock Machine hangout on Lesage Street. Boucher had kept mostly quiet during the car ride, but now, as they passed the garage he turned to Tousignant and said, “You are going to be there.” Boucher then asked Gagné and Tousignant to hide so they wouldn't be seen by the men outside the red-brick building who were doing guard duty for the Rock Machine that day as he drove past.

The trio then drove on to Lachine, a municipality next to
Verdun, where Gagné was told his part of the plan was simply to place a bomb underneath an empty car and blow it up. Boucher figured that the police would arrive after the bomb detonated and that the commotion would draw the attention of the Rock Machine members and cause them to all head inside their hangout. Then another team would detonate a much more powerful bomb with the goal of destroying the Rock Machine hangout and killing everyone inside. This second team was supposed to be paged after the first bomb had gone off.

Gagné said the diversionary bomb was supposed to be set off in a parking lot next to a condominium. He was going to do this with Stephan (Sandman) Falls. The plan was for the pair to wait for a page showing a series of is. They would then detonate the bomb using a remote-control device. After agreeing to the plan, Tousignant led Gagné and Falls to a bar on the South Shore to pick up the bomb they were going to use.