Police say 10 arrests made after two Montreal-area homicides last summer

Being placed behind bars did not stop four people with alleged links to organized crime from plotting two killings in the Montreal area last summer using cell phones while in jail to communicate with the outside.

That's what local and provincial police revealed on Thursday as they announced the arrests of 10 people since last week who are believed to be involved in the two killings and a series of other shootings in the Greater Montreal area in recent years. The arrests were the result of a joint operation between Montreal police and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).

Montreal police described the arrests that were made since July 17 as a "major blow" to a local street gang they refused to name. 

"It's pretty rare that we are able to arrest people like that for these kinds of events so we're pretty happy with the work of the investigators because it was a complex file … and they [went] over it and did a very good job," said Cmdr. Jean-Sébastien Caron at a news conference on Thursday.

Caron said it's no secret that some inmates have access to contraband, like cell phones, in jail. 

"They know pretty much the persons who are able to do some murders outside so they are able to connect and communicate with the cellular [phone] inside," he said.

He also confirmed that one of the homicides last summer was a case of mistaken identity, when 32-year-old Noel Garcia-Frias was gunned down in his Audi Q8 in Charlemagne, northeast of Montreal, on the night of June 16, 2023.

"He was the wrong person at the wrong place," Caron told reporters, adding that he "absolutely" had no links to organized crime.

In the second killing on Aug. 7, 2023, a 28-year-old man was found with multiple gunshot wounds on Ste. Catherine Street West, near Guy Street, in downtown Montreal near Concordia University, at around 3:30 a.m. He died in hospital.

Investigators believe he was the intended target of the June 16 slaying.

10 arrests since last week

The 10 people arrested in the joint police operation could face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to Caron. 

In the past 24 hours, five men between 21 and 31 years old and a 27-year-old woman were arrested.

Of those six people, four were already behind bars at provincial jails and a federal detention centre in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines.

Four others, between the ages of 25 and 28, were arrested on July 17 in the Charlemagne and Montreal areas.

Nine of the 10 people arrested have links to organized crime, police say.

Caron said the arrests will hopefully help curb the gun violence in Montreal and rub out the street gang, which is also allegedly behind the killing of a 27-year-old man in the Ahuntsic–Cartierville borough on May 14.

Two suspects were arrested in that case, but a third — Dylan Denis — is still wanted by investigators.