The Hells Angels are the crème de la crème of motorcycle clubs. To be even considered a prospect, you need bring something to the table, mostly in terms of money. Cash is king. Many consider them a top-tier group of criminals, but things have changed in the recent decades. The club has shifted towards legal business’s and ventures rather than the wild MC times of the ’60’s, ’70’s and ’80’s, where clubs were rampant in illegal activities.
One province or ‘state’ that seems to be an outlier within the rest of the HAMC’s throughout North America is the province of Quebec. Quebec witnessed a war between the Hells Angels MC and a group of MC’s and criminal clans named the Alliance, short for “Alliance To Fight The Angels’, a very literal name. This war took place between 1994 to 2002. The HAMC in the province of Quebec still seem to have an ‘edge’ to them, forming an alliance with the Montreal Mafia in the 2000’s and gaining immense power throughout the province. Most of this violence stemmed from the then president of the Quebec HA named Maurice ‘Mom’ Boucher.
Being in a prestigious club, comes with many does and don’ts. One of those ‘don’ts’ is chronically inducing drugs, in other words being an addict. Big no-no. This was the case for Eric ‘Beluga Leclerc, who was expelled from the Motorcycle Club in 2009 for drug use.
Gun shots rang out in a Longueil residence Monday, late in the night, towards 11pm (29/04/2024). The crime took place in the Saint Hubert borough, on Rue Mackay in the Lafleche neighborhood of Longueil. A suspect, holding what was most likely a firearm, had ran out of the basement of the house and had gotten into an un-specified car which then sped off. A traumatizing scene; a blood-drenched woman soon came out of the residence, screaming. Neighbors recounted how they had heard three gun shots ring out to local news stations.
Once authorities had arrived on the scene of the crime, they found Eric ‘Beluga’ Leclerc, 53 years old, bloodied and battered in the basement of the residence. But Beluga, wasn’t dead just yet, it is only when they rushed him to the nearest hospital that he was pronounced dead early Tuesday morning. It is unknown whether Beluga was part of the trafficking in the area or was a user that suffered an unkindly faith. What is known, is that the location was known as a ‘trap house’ to local authorities.
Even though Beluga’s history states him as an past member of the Hells Angels MC, Beluga got his start with the Rock Machine, offering security to members in the mid ’90’s. He was also noted as being a prospect, but not a full-patched member. This lasted only a few years, as he was incarcerated in 1999 and had decided to turn his back on the Rock Machine and The Alliance.
He joined the Hells Angels after his stint in prison. It’s easy to imagine why such a character would switch sides, when the HAMC was the reigning Motorcycle Club not only in the province, but in the country. A position in which he would hold for nearly a decade before he was expulsed for drug use.
Beluga would accumulate a series of charges since his introduction to crime in 1990, these charges would follow him until his death. Beluga was supposed to show up in court on May 14th, 2024 in relation to being charged with a prohibited firearm earlier on in the year. He also had a trail of charges dating back to the early ’90’s. Recently he was involved in a break & enter charge in which he passed in court in 2021. He was acquitted of all charges.
He would also surface on local news headlines in 2014, in which he opened fire on another man in downtown Montreal. The victim was not fatally injured although, Beluga and the victim had known each other. The incident happened on Rue Saint-Andre near the Viger intersection.
It’s important to note that his incarceration in 1999 was for a sentence of 4 years and 8 months and was due to an informant named Peter Paradis, a Rock Machine member, who flipped in March of that year. He was among the first one charged with gangsterism in relation to the Quebec Biker War along with cocaine trafficking. He was sentenced to Rivieres-Des-Prairies prison. He was subsequently charged with possession of a firearm in 2001, while switching sides to the Hells Angels, along with 8 other Rock Machine members.
In 2011 he was charged with armed robbery which he was convicted of in May 2013, but again, was subsequently charged with the attempted murder which took place in downtown Montreal in 2014. The victim of the 2014 charge, was a man by the name of Claude Fleury, 36 years old. Fleury did not comply with the questioning of police officers soon after.
It’s hard to say whether Beluga was just a helpless drug addict at the time of his death, or played a part in supplying the trap house with drugs. Even though he had been kicked out of the HAMC, he still held an intimidating, incriminating past.
