Nowadays you hear more and more stories about individuals fabricating firearms with 3D printers and selling them on the street. These types of firearms are known as zip-guns, street slang roughly translating to a homemade gun. The practice of making unregistered, shotty and shady firearms has existed long before the invention of the 3D printer, but before, it was machinists who manufactured these illegal, non-registered firearms. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the saga of a machinist and illegal gunsmith. This is the story of Jean-Pierre Huot and his company, Perfection Metal.
Jean-Pierre Huot, now 67 was arrested, charged and convicted in 2018 for crimes committed between 2013 and 2014. But what crimes did he commit? With the help of his machining company, tools and machines, Huot found a very criminal niche, he machined illegal weapons and knowingly sold them to certain underworld figures throughout Montreal. In total, the weapons he had made were linked to 22 separate crimes.
The most prominent crime was most likely the murder of Ducarme Joseph in 2014, leader of the 67th Street Gang, a Crip (blue) influenced gang. Joseph’s was allegedly murdered for not aligning the 67th Street Gang in a coalition with the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels MC. The coalition was formed by Gregory ‘Picasso’ Woolley, now deceased as of recently. Joseph was murdered with a counterfeit TEC-9 which Huot made.
Huot made it into the news again last week while still being incarcerated. Scotia Bank had decided to set their aim on him, or rather his company Perfection Metal. They are now pursuing Huot for unpaid debts; a 14,000$ unpaid charge on a credit card, a line of credit worth 200,000$ and a measly 530$ debt on another unpaid card.
Huot used paintball guns as a front to produce the semi-automatic pistols. The vice president of Perfection Metal, Pierre Lariviere, was also charged in the police sweep but was later acquitted in court. The prosecutor was aiming for a 10-year sentence, while his lawyer fought for a 5-year sentence. The final sentence resulted in 7-years of incarceration.
Prosecutor Philippe Vallieres-Roland made the argument in court that many of the ballistics’ that were showed in several mob assassinations and crimes correlated, or were similar to ballistics of the pistols and semi-automatic firearms that were used in 11 crimes throughout the 2010’s, some being mob hits. The first notable attempted murder committed with one of Huot’s weapons was the one of then 47 year old Marcel Raymond. The next was the murder of Ducarme Joseph, whom we wrote about earlier on in this article.
The second murder committed in relation to the guns manufactured at Perfection Metal was the one of 53 year old Mario Bourgeois, in 2015, a child molester who was convicted of the assault of a 15 year old girl. A well deserved ending to a steaming pile of shit. Marco Ruest, also used one of Huot’s counterfeit TEC-9’s in the robbery of a Birks jewelry store. Police later found the firearm thanks to a search warrant executed. Real Renaud, who was 46 at the time also survived a shooting attempt in 2017 while removing snow.
One of his assault pistols was also used in a murder that occurred in May of 2014. The victim was 50 year old biker, Richard Rousseau, who belonged to a Motorcycle Club affiliated to the Hells Angels MC. Rousseau was in a wheelchair at the time of the shooting. Over 30 TEC-9 style submachine guns fabricated by police were found by the SPVM (Montreal Police Department), 18 of which were found at crime scenes mentioned above.
Jean-Pierre Huot’s clandestine firearms were not only used in the criminal underworld in the province of Quebec, but his reach had also extended to the Greater Toronto Area. Authorities figured out that a submachine gun was used in a robbery which took place in Scarborough brothel in November of 2016, no one was injured during the crime.
Jean-Pierre Huot was claiming that he believed he was manufacturing paintball guns in court. A laughable defense, although still a defense. He swore in court by this statement, but the judge did not fall for this excuse. Huot was convicted with six counts of manufacturing firearms and silencers and two counts of possession.
