MONTREAL -- Officers in the Quebec provincial police's organized crime squad have twice broken up gatherings in January and handed out over $32,000 in fines to members affiliated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club for violating public health measures put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Surete du Quebec (SQ) spokesperson Claude Denis confirmed that officers broke up a gathering Saturday around 7 p.m. in Sainte-Emelie-de-L'Energie in the Lanaudiere region of Quebec, about an hour-and-a-half north of Montreal and handed out over $6,000 in fines to four people.
The $1,550 tickets were for illegally gathering and given to four people, including three men associated with the Destroyers de Lanaudiere, a club linked to the Hells Angels.
It is the second such intervention by the SQ's organized crime division in January.
On Jan. 8, officers handed out 17 public health infractions in Saint-Nazaire-d'Acton in Monteregie, about an hour east of Montreal.
"Police officers made an intervention about an illegal gathering," said Denis.
Officers responded to a party around 10 p.m. and handed out illegal gathering infractions to those in attendance, including several members of the Dark Souls, another motorcycle club that the SQ says is affiliated with the Hells Angels.
The members were not breaking the province-wide curfew in Saint-Nazaire-d'Acton as the curfew began Jan. 9.
