Within the last decade, Montreal has taken a violent turn for the worst. With shootings happening left and right and stabbings in-between. It is hard to keep up with the increase in violence. For shootings to occur throughout the island, or province, there need to be guns, or firearms. To procure firearms, there are two paths you can follow to attain them. Follow a course, wait a year, get your license and buy them from a gun shop. Or simply buying them off the street. Criminals prefer the latter. Arms dealers have been a hot topic throughout the last couple of months, mainly on the island of Montreal. McEdwin Vilmeus was arrested in June of 2022, and faced an incriminating day in court this past week.
McEdwin Vilmeus is a 53 year old man that had taken a lot of caution in his business of dealing firearms, only sending encrypted messages concerning his business. But it did not prevent him from getting arrested in June of 2022. The problem with getting him convicted was to decode those encrypted messages, which finally came to avail this past week in court. Vilmeus was not only dealing in arms trafficking but also in drug trafficking.
Vilmeus was not in the sights of Montreal or Longueuil police. Four other suspects had gotten arrested in 2021, and with a quick search through the suspect’s phones, Montreal police had managed to pin Vilmeus as a suspect who had something to do with the trafficking of firearms in the greater Montreal region.
Most notably, they found messages sent between Vilmeus and Daniel Charleus, an individual suspected in supplying firearms in the Montreal area. Charleus was also arrested in June of 2022 which resulted in 50,000$ seized as well as rifles and ammunition. Charleus also supplied Gaspesie area arms and drug trafficker, Jeremy Paquin-Herchel. Charleus was convicted of a 7 year sentence.
Charleus and Vilmeus sometimes had used a middle man to contact each other which greatly helped Vilmeus from getting caught. Daniel Charleus was known as the supplier, while Vilmeus sold the firearms to certain street gangs across Montreal. They also used the Signal app to communicate, although this did not stop police from decoding the messages.
To the surprise of authorities, Vilmeus had been charged in the United States for selling cocaine. The judge will make the decision for his conviction in the next few weeks.
