Hells Angels puppet club leader denied day parole
Provencher was a well-known drug dealer in southwestern parts of Montreal, like Verdun and LaSalle, even before he joined the Rockers in 1994. The Rockers were a gang created by Hells Angels leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher in his bid to dominate the city’s drug trafficking turf. Provencher and a handful of drug dealers who worked under him were key in helping the Hells Angels’ Nomads chapter expand west of the downtown core.
It all fell apart in March 2001 when almost the entire membership of both the Nomads and Rockers were arrested in Operation Springtime 2001. The police investigation set in motion the end of a gang war between the Hells Angels and a group called the Alliance, during which more than 160 people were killed. Several of those deaths involved the Rockers’ aggressive expansion into Montreal’s southwest. What emerged from the several trials related to Operation Springtime 2001 is that Provencher was very much involved in planning the violence.
In 2003, Provencher pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and participating in the activities of a criminal organization. He is serving a 15-year sentence at a medium-security penitentiary.
According to a written summary of a hearing held this week, Provencher told the parole board he felt he could serve his time on day parole while working on his maple syrup farm and reconnecting with his family. The provincial government tried to confiscate the farm in 2003 but the Crown couldn’t prove he bought it with money earned through drug trafficking.
The parole board denied any form of release in part because past convictions indicate Provencher has spent most of his adult life as a criminal. They also found his attempts to depict himself as having a limited role in the gang war lacked credibility.
Source: Hells Angels puppet club leader denied day parole
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