57-year-old Claude Gauthier, a member of the Hells Angels MC, was the victim in an altercation that ultimately led to a stabbing in the afternoon of Friday, April 18th. The man was a resident of a halfway house located on Rue Kirouac in the Saint-Sauveur borough of Quebec City. The events that had led up to the disagreement between the middle-aged biker and the 33-year-old who stabbed him are unknown. This story is just screaming to be a sequel in the unfortunate series of events which is the Quebec Drug War, although there isn’t enough information to confirm this hypothesis.
It happened towards 2:40pm, a call had been placed to 911 and the SPVQ (Quebec City Police Service) concerning two residents of the Rue Kirouac residence having a physical altercation. Upon arrival, authorities found 57-year-old Claude Gauthier, injured by stab-like wounds. The weapon in question was a pair of scissors. As previously mentioned the aggressor was a 33-year-old man, a fellow resident of the halfway house. He had fled the scene shortly after the attack, only to be found by a couple of streets away from the halfway house.
Details of the assault and what led to it, including the number of times Gauthier was stabbed aren’t available to the public or media yet. All we know is that the altercation had taken place in the halfway house. Gauthier was rushed to the hospital, with his state in stable condition.
Why was Claude Gauthier in a halfway house? In April of 2021, he was nabbed and sentenced to 9 years. He was freed recently, with a strict diet of conditions he has to obey for a certain amount of time. Some of these conditions include restriction to socialize with anyone that has had a smidge of criminality throughout their lives, including anyone who has ties to a criminal organization.
He was convicted for a drug trafficking ring he headed in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, with a slew of other individuals. 32 to be exact, arrests where made in the regions of Monteregie, Outaouais and Montreal. Gauthier was swept up in a police operation led by the ENCRO dubbed ‘Orque’, which translates to ‘Orca’ in English. ENCRO is a task force in which specializes in tackling the organized crime problem in the province of Quebec. It was set about by the SQ (Quebec Provincial Police). The operation managed to sell up to three kilograms of cocaine each month. He was charged with gangsterism, as well as drug trafficking and conspiracy.
The judge, Claude Leblond, settled on a sentence of 9 years. Meeting somewhere in the middle of the two opposing factions of the court, with the Crown asking for 12 years, and the defense requesting 6 years. In the end Gauthier only served 3 and a half years, being released on parole. Evidence included up to 20,000 conversations that had been intercepted in the frame of Operation Orca. Some of which were incriminating.
Earlier on, he faced multiple accusations that were part of the infamous Operation SharQc in 2009, but decided to go on the lam, fleeing the province for 6 years until his charges were eventually dropped. Being accused of 29 separate charges including murder, drug trafficking, conspiracy of and gangsterism, he dodged a hell of a metaphoric bullet. Gauthier had also been charged with disturbing the peace and trying to pick a fight with a police officer on Sainte-Catherine’s Street in Montreal on the 29th of August in 2007. Finally, Gauthier had been convicted to a 30-month sentence back in 2003.
The question begs, was this event in light of the upscaling drug war happening between MCs and street gangs, or was this incident just a result of a freak altercation?
