MONTREAL - Montreal police are trying to determine if three people arrested Monday morning in connection with an attempted firebombing are responsible for a string of attacks in the north end the city.
Two men and one woman were caught by police as they were about to throw a firebomb through a store window of a restaurant on Langelier Blvd. in St. Leonard.
"As they tried to break the window down to throw a Molotov cocktail, police jumped on them and proceeded to the arrest of all three people," said Montreal police Const. Yannick Ouimet.
The three were arrested and pleaded not guilty to several counts of conspiracy to commit arson and mischief in a Montreal courthouse Monday.
The three suspects are:
- Tony Abou Arrage, 52, who has a previous conviction for cocaine trafficking
- Andre Beaulieu, 47, who has a long list of convictions for petty crimes
- Nawal Al-Haddad, 48, who has no criminal past
Police have so far been unable to link the trio to a spate of firebombings, because their description doesn't match that of the suspects wanted in those arsons.
"There are a lot of similarities between them but there's a lot of differentiation between them so at this point the investigators cannot say whether or not these are the right people who were arrested," said Ouimet.
In the past week three pizzerias and a cheese importing business have all been torched by criminals.
Two pizza restaurants just a few blocks apart on Charleroi St. were attacked with firebombs on Wednesday.
The next evening a dairy processing plant in St. Leonard was set ablaze, and damage was so extensive the building had to be demolished because it was unsafe.
Sunday morning, yet another pizza restaurant on Charleroi St. was set on fire.
Damage was so extensive that the restaurant will have to be rebuilt, and residents who lived in several apartments above the pizzeria are now homeless.
No one was injured in any of the attacks.
