By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Thirteen firearm trafficking suspects were arrested by the Quebec Provincial Police (SQ) on Thursday morning in the West Island and throughout the province.

More than 100 police officers and civilians were deployed to execute the arrests and conduct 16 searches early Thursday morning in Pointe-Claire, Longueuil, Boucherville, Saint-Hubert, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Mercier, Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu, Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, Repentigny, Saint-Côme, Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie, Fossambault-sur-le-Lac and Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier.

The suspects, ten men and three women, are Samantha Sarika-Singh, 40, from Pointe-Claire; François Plamondon, 38, from Fossambault-sur-le-Lac; Vincent Baril, 40, from Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier; Nicolas Gagné-Mercier, 23 years old from Gatineau; Omar Tissoudal, 21, from Mercier; Alexandre Ovalle, 41, from Carignan; Eddy-Félix Amador-Rojas, 37, from Longueuil; Yann-Michael Hervet, 53, from Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu; Frédéric Vaillancourt, 52, from Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie; Jason-Benoit Ialenti, 32, from Boucherville; Maxime Lajoie-Noreau, 35. from Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu; Maude L’Écuyer, 28, from Carignan and Marie-Ève Labonté, 43, from the borough of Saint-Hubert.

The suspects were arraigned by videoconference at the Quebec City courthouse on Thursday to answer to charges related to arms trafficking and/or drug trafficking.

The investigation leading up to these arrests was conducted by the Integrated Arms Trafficking Team (EILTA-Québec) and coordinated by the SQ. The operation began in October 2023.

According to authorities. the weapons, including twelve handguns that are most commonly used in violent firearm crimes, were mostly from the United States and were illegally imported into Quebec.

Authorities have not yet determined whether some of the weapons sold by this alleged firearm trafficking network were used. n