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André Desjardins
André "Dédé" Desjardins (4 July 1930 – 27 April 2000) was a Canadian union official noted for his involvement with organized crime. Desjardins served as the president of the ''Conseil des métiers de la construction'' () and vice-president of the '' Fédération des travailleurs du Québec'' (Quebec Federation of Labour, FTQ) union between 1970 and 1974, becoming known as ''Le roi de la construction'' ("the king of construction"). During this time, Desjardins was involved in the scandal that led to the Cliche commission of 1974–75 headed by Judge Robert Cliche to examine corruption in Quebec construction unions. Afterwards, Desjardins enjoyed much success as one of the leading loan sharks in Montreal until his murder. Despite sharing the same surname, Desjardins is not related to Raynald Desjardins, a notorious mobster related to the Rizzuto crime family. Rise to power Desjardins was born in the Centre-Sud of Montreal, the son of a plumber, and grew up in poverty. Desjardin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as ''Fort Ville-Marie, Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill around which the early city of Ville-Marie is built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which obtained its name from the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is east of the national capital Ottawa, and southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City. As of 2021, the city had a population of 1,762,949, and a Census Metropolitan Area#Census metropolitan areas, metropolitan population of 4,291,732, making it the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest city, and List of cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political science and law. He then moved to Montreal and gained prominence as a labour lawyer. After placing third in the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership election, he was appointed president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1977. He held that post until 1983, when he successfully became leader of the Progressive Conservatives. He then led the party to a landslide victory in the 1984 federal election, winning the second-largest percentage of seats in Canadian history (at 74.8 percent) and receiving over 50 percent of the popular vote. Mulroney later won a second majority government in 1988. Mulroney's tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Bouchard (policeman)
André Bouchard (born 1950) is a retired police officer with the ''Service de police de la Ville de Montréal'', best known for his role in the Quebec Biker War. Early life Bouchard was born in Montreal, the son of a Second World War veteran who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and as a policeman with the ''Sûreté du Québec.'' Bouchard grew up in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal and speaks his ''joual'' (Quebec French) with a strong working-class accent. All of Bouchard's brothers also became policemen. Police career Early career In June 1970, Bouchard joined the Montreal Police, where he often fought with the outlaw bikers that infested Montreal, especially members of the Popeye Moto Club. Bouchard stated in an interview: "Don't forget this was before the Charter of Rights. You saw a guy walking up the street in his colours, you kicked the shit out of him and that was it". Bouchard recalled that when he saw members of the Popeyes wearing their grey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Common nicknames for the club are the "H.A.", "Red & White", "HAMC", and "81". With a membership between 3,000 and 3,600 and 467 chapters in 59 countries, the HAMC is one of the largest motorcycle clubs in the world. Many police and international intelligence agencies, including the United States Department of Justice and Europol, consider the club an organized crime syndicate. History The Hells Angels originated on March 17, 1948, in Fontana, California, when several small motorcycle clubs agreed to merge.''The Secret Life of Bikers'' by Jerry Langton. Location 19.5/477. HarperCollings:2018 Otto Friedli, a World War II veteran, is credited with starting the club after breaking from the Pissed Off Bastards motorcycle club over a fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Boucher
Maurice Boucher (21 June 1953 – 10 July 2022) was a Canadian gangster, convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker—once president of the Hells Angels' Quebec Nomads chapter. Boucher led Montreal's Hells Angels against the rival Rock Machine biker gang during the Quebec Biker War (french: Guerre des motards au Québec) of 1994 through 2002 in Quebec, Canada. In 2002, Boucher was convicted of ordering the murders of two Quebec prison officers in an effort to destabilize the Quebec Justice system. He was sent to serve three life sentences at Canada's only supermax prison, in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines. While imprisoned there, Boucher survived several assassination attempts motivated by his infamy, and was placed in a special unit of the prison to isolate him. Authorities transferred him in June 2022 to the nearby Archambault Institution under conditions of secrecy so he could receive palliative care following the metastasis of his throat cancer. He died 10 Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotroni Crime Family
The Cotroni crime family, originally CotroneAuger and Edwards ''The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime'' p.63. () was an Italian 'Ndrangheta type organized crime syndicate (or 'Ndrina) based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered the family a branch of the Bonanno crime family of New York. The organization was established in the 1940s by Vincenzo Cotroni, a Calabrian immigrant from Mammola. Its territory once covered most of southern Quebec and Ontario.Lamothe & Humphreys, ''The Sixth Family'', p.308 An internal war broke out between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions of the family in the late 1970s, which resulted in the death of acting captain Paolo Violi and his brothers. This allowed the Sicilian Rizzuto faction, a Mafia crime family to overtake the Cotroni's Calabrian faction as the preeminent crime family in Montreal. Vincenzo died of cancer in 1984, followed by his brother Frank in 2004. History In 1924, Vinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methaqualone
Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude ( ) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg methaqualone and 25 mg diphenhydramine within the same tablet, mostly in Europe. Commercial production of methaqualone was halted in the mid-1980s due to widespread abuse and addictiveness. It is a member of the quinazolinone class. The sedative–hypnotic activity of methaqualone was first noted in 1955. In 1962, methaqualone was patented in the United States by Wallace and Tiernan. Its use peaked in the early 1970s for the treatment of insomnia, and as a sedative and muscle relaxant. Methaqualone became increasingly popular as a recreational drug and club drug in the late 1960s and 1970s, known variously as "ludes" or "disco biscuits" due to its widespread use during the popularity of disco in the 1970s, or "sopers" (also "soaps") ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Puerto Plata, officially known as San Felipe de Puerto Plata, is the third-largest city in the Dominican Republic, and capital of the province of Puerto Plata. The city is a trading port. Puerto Plata has resorts such as Playa Dorada and Costa Dorada, which are located east of the city proper. There are 100,000 hotel beds in the city. The first aerial tramway of the Caribbean is located in Puerto Plata, in which visitors can ride up to the Pico Isabel de Torres, a 793-meter (2600-foot) high mountain within the city. The fortification Fortaleza San Felipe, which was built in the 16th century and served as a prison under Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship, lies close to the port of Puerta Plata. The Amber Museum is also a well-known attraction in this city. La Isabela, a settlement built by Christopher Columbus, is located near Puerto Plata. In April 1563, the Spanish settlement became notorious when the English slave trader Sir John Hawkins brought 400 people he had abducted from Sie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with Haiti, making Hispaniola one of only two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that is shared by two sovereign states. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest nation in the Antilles by area (after Cuba) at , and third-largest by population, with approximately 10.7 million people (2022 est.), down from 10.8 million in 2020, of whom approximately 3.3 million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city. The official language of the country is Spanish. The native Taíno people had inhabited Hispaniola before the arrival of Europeans, dividing it into five chiefdoms. They had constructed an advanced farming and hunting society, and were in the process of becoming an organized civilization. The Taínos also in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loan Shark
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably expect to be able to use the legal system to collect such debts, they often resort to enforcing repayment by terms of blackmail and threats of violence. Historically, many moneylenders skirted between legal and criminal activity. In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a prominent feature of the criminal underworld. Loan sharking is not to be confused with predatory lending with extremely high interest rates such as payday or title loans, which is sometimes considered to be "loan sharking" (or, at least, unfavorably compared to loan sharking by critics) regardless of whether it is legal. A key difference between "traditional" loan sharking and predatory lending is that lenders alleged to be engaged in the latter practice are ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincenzo Cotroni
Vincenzo "Vic" Cotroni (; born Vincenzo Cotrone; ; 1911 – 16 September 1984), also known as "The Egg", was an Italian-Canadian crime boss of the Cotroni crime family in Montreal, Quebec. Cotroni was born in 1911, in Mammola, Calabria, Italy. In 1924, he immigrated to Montreal. In his early life, he worked as a professional wrestler under the name "Vic Vincent". By the age of 20, Cotroni had accumulated a lengthy record of minor offenses, Rum-running, bootlegging with local bootlegger Armand Courville. In 1928, Cotroni was charged with rape against Maria Bresciano. The charge was dropped when Maria agreed to marry him in May 1928, and later had a child, Rosina. Throughout his life, Cotroni kept a low profile. In 1974, he was subpoenaed to stand before a Quebec government commission inquiry into organized crime and was jailed for one year for contempt. The following year, Cotroni and his capodecina Paolo Violi, along with Hamilton, Ontario mobster Johnny Papalia, were convicted o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sûreté Du Québec
The (SQ; , ) is the provincial police service for the Canadian province of Quebec. No official English name exists, but the agency's name is sometimes translated to 'Quebec Provincial Police' or QPP in English-language sources. The headquarters of the are located on Parthenais Street in Montreal's Sainte-Marie neighbourhood, and the service employs over 5,000 officers. The SQ is the second-largest provincial police service (behind the Ontario Provincial Police) and the fourth-largest police service in Canada (behind the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police). Function The primary function of the Sûreté du Québec is to enforce provincial laws, some municipal bylaws, the Criminal Code and many other laws throughout Quebec, and to assist municipal police services when needed. At the local level, the SQ is responsible for providing local police services to municipalities that chose not to have their own police department ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
