As Ali Chaaban was getting into his luxury Mercedes Benz G-Wagon on Boulevard de L’Avenir in Laval, a hooded figure crept up to the driver’s side window and unloaded at least 10 to 15 shots in Chaaban’s direction at around 1pm yesterday afternoon (9/02/2024). Chaaban was able to evade most shots and managed to escape through the passenger side of his SUV. 35 year old Chabaan was shot, but only suffered minor injuries, only being shot once in the arm.
According to witness reports, the perpetrator then fled by food and had gotten in a black Honda Civic, parked next to luxurious SUV. He had an accomplice in the driver’s seat. The duo then sped of in the southbound direction of Boulevard de L’Avenir, close the the St-Martin West intersection.
Just an hour before Ali Chabaan was visiting the construction site of a prospective restaurant he was going to set up with a general entrepreneur. Once they finished with the visit, Chabaan and this unnamed entrepreneur spent around 20 minutes chatting in the parking, both parties then entered each their respective vehicles which is when the shooting occurred. Might the entrepreneur have been involved in the shooting?
Ali Chabaan was no innocent civilian. Police know of him through being an important key player in vehicle thefts and exportation over seas through the Port Of Montreal. Although the police haven’t concurred up a motive to the shooting that happened yesterday, it is clear that the shooting was related to his part in the theft and exportation of vehicle. The group of thieves and exporters of which Chabaan belonged too would also modify vehicles they had stolen, chop them for parts and also sell those parts. He also owned a business called Cube Express, which Chabaan would use as a tool of these vehicle thefts according to police records. Cube Express’s headquarters are located in Lachine, on Chemin de la Cote-de-Liesse.
Criminal arsons of certain vehicles had happened in Cube Express’s property in the past and the group would use the property of Cube Express to let the vehicles ‘cool down’ after they had been stolen. They would then be transferred to the Port of Montreal. Ali Chabaan has never been hit with charges relating to vehicle theft.
Insurance companies in the province of Quebec are reporting that the recent year has been the worst one for car thefts, with over 1 billion dollars in insurance claims. A federal auto theft summit has ben held in Ottawa 2 days ago on February 8th that included personnel such as RCMP, border patrol agents and insurance companies to name a few. The summit was held in efforts to tackle vehicle theft and exportation in Canada.
