The SQ provincial police arrested four suspects Wednesday morning in connection with a high-profile prison break on March 17, in which inmates Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Danny Provençal escaped from the Saint-Jérôme prison in a hijacked helicopter.
Three suspects have been identified as Luana Larose, 30, Vincent Barbeau, 25, and his brother Samuel Barbeau, 26. The identity of a fourth suspect, 27, has not been revealed.
The four will appear in St. Jerome court on Thursday to face charges of escape, kidnapping and using a firearm during the commission of an offence.
The two inmates escaped after helicopter pilot Sebastian Foray was hired for what he believed to be a legitimate job.
Instead, Mathieu Steven Marchisio and Yagé Beaudoin allegedly pulled a .38 calibre pistol on the helicopter pilot and ordered him to fly to the prison to help with the escape.
The pilot was instructed to land on the roof of one of the prison buildings where the two prisoners grabbed onto a rope hanging from the helicopter. The chopper then flew to the Hotel L'Esterel, near Saint-Sauveur.
The prisoners then escaped to a cabin in Chertsey about 50 kilometers away from the prison.
Hudon-Barbeau had attained previous notereity after his 12-year sentence for manslaughter in connection to a nightclub double-slaying in 2006 was overturned.
He was freed after serving 15 months of that sentence in January 2012 but soon returned to prison after being charged with a possession of a restricted firearm, possession of marijuana, and using a stolen credit card after being arrested in August 2012 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Luana Larose, who was sharing a hotel room with him at the time, also faced charges in connection with those offences.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
