The three men captured by police after making a brazen helicopter escape from jail two weeks ago appeared in court today in Quebec City.
The three sported beards and looked tired, as the sound of their chains sounded as they moved in the plexiglass box in the largest room of the courthouse.
They were officially charged with prison breach and escaping legal custody and are slated to return to court Thursday.
Yves Denis, Denis Lefebvre, and Serge Pomerleau were arrested early Sunday morning at a luxury condo in Montreal and were transported to the courthouse by three separate speeding convoys early Monday morning.
Visitors wanting to attend the hearing faced a long line as guards checked each and every person's ID and made everyone go through metal detectors.
Police also revealed Monday that they had seized almost $100,000 in cash from the condo during the arrest and also impounded a vehicle parked on the street outside.
In court, Justice Louis Dionne suspended a previous judgment that he had issued permitting the relaxation of the conditions of custody for the three detainees.
The judge limited their computer access in jail, forbade them from strolling together in the jail courtyard and insisted they be cuffed and shackled during their visits to the courthouse.
In a judgment from March, Dionne gave the detainees access to a secured computer for their trial preparation. The ruling also stated they didn't have to wear handcuffs during proceedings and would be allowed to go into the prison yard on weekday evenings, prison staffing permitting.
The men are on trial for drug trafficking. The jury was asked to be patient as the three still do not have a lawyer.
They also face murder charges in Montreal and that trial is expected to start in 2015.
The Quebec government has ordered an internal investigation into the jailbreak -- the second by helicopter in just over a year. Two inmates fled the St-Jerome detention centre by helicopter in March 2013, but were quickly recaptured.
Denis, 35, Lefebvre, 53, and Pomerleau, 49, escaped from prison on June 7 when a helicopter flew them out of a courtyard at the Orsainville Detention Centre near Quebec City.
It was the second helicopter-related prison break in the province in 15 months.
The brazen escape landed the three men on Interpol's ‘Most Wanted’ fugitives list, sparking an international manhunt.
Some reports had suggested that the trio received assistance renting the condo from an underworld figure connected to the Quebec biker war that ended a decade ago but authorities have not confirmed that speculation.
- With files from The Canadian Press
