The Surete du Quebec arrested Sunday the three Quebec inmates who escaped from prison by helicopter two weeks ago at a luxury condo in Old Montreal.
Serge Pomerleau, Denis Lefebvre and Yves Denis were arrested in an early-morning raid by SWAT teams at the condo around 1:30 a.m. No shots were fired during the arrests.
The men escaped from the Orsainville jail, in the Quebec City area, June 7. The arrests end an international manhunt for the inmates, who were the subject of an Interpol alert.
Public Security Minister Lise Theriault, who has been roundly criticized by opposition party members since the three men escaped, said Sunday she was
relieved the inmates are back in custody and congratulated police on their work.
The Surete du Quebec is still looking for at least one other suspect who was likely an accomplice in the prison break.
A man who answered the door at the condo, at at 370 St. Andre St., identified himself as the owner of the unit, but said he did not live there.
He said he got a call Sunday morning saying police had knocked the door down and found the three men inside.
The man, who did not give his name, said he uses a rental agency to find tenants for the unit. The agency notified him about 10 days ago that the condo had been rented out, but the man said he did not receive details about the people who were living there.
Thierry Lindor lives right next door to the unit where the men were found.
A real estate agent, he said resident are used to having movie shoots and athletes in the building, but he was “shocked” to hear the escaped inmates were living in his building.
The majority of the units in the building, he said, are owned by people who also live there. Only a handful of the condos are rented out.
And he pointed out that since many of the buildings in the area are less than 10 storeys high, the fact that the men were hiding in a 10th floor unit offered them a particular advantage.
“They are above everything and no one can see inside, and they can see outside,” he explained.
Inside the unit, clothes were strewn all over the floor and dining room table.
Pillow and blankets were set up on a couch and on a mat on the floor in the dining area.
There was a bottle of shaving cream, a water bottle and an open can of 7UP on the dining room table, and a bowl of pears in the kitchen.
DVDs, some opened, some still in their original plastic wrapping, were found on the dining room table. Among the opened DVD cases: Sherlock Holmes, The Hangover Part 2 and The Bourne Supremacy. There was a television in the living room area.
A few boxes of soap were open beside the bathroom sink, and an opened, nearly empty bag of toilet paper was on the floor beside a box with a picture of an electric razor.
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.
The escape also produced controversy for the new provincial Liberal government, as reports surfaced that security measures at the prison were loosened ahead of the jailbreak.
Theriault said prison officials allowed the three men into the courtyard without restraints. One of the inmates was also allowed to use a computer with Internet access prior to their escape.
Quebec’s prison guards’ union president Mathieu Lavoie said Sunday security measures will be custom-made for the three men on their return to the Orsainville jail.
The three men were awaiting trial on numerous charges including first-degree murder, gangsterism and drug trafficking. All three were arrested in 2010 in a drug trafficking blitz called ‘Operation Crayfish.’
The men will be transported back to the Orsainville detention centre on Sunday and are expected to appear in court on Monday, police said.
With files from CTVNews.ca and The Canadian Press
