https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2...s-quun-message-selon-un-ancien-enqueteurGunshots and arson at Jean-Noël Lacroix's home: they wanted to send "more than a message", according to a former.
The shooting and arson attack targeting the home and business of controversial businessman Jean-Noël "Sarto" Lacroix on Thursday night are "more than a message" according to a former investigator specializing in organized crime.
"It couldn't be a clearer message. It's even more than a message, it's a warning," says former Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) investigator Roger Ferland.
According to him, there was "certainly no mistake about the person." He emphasizes that the controversial businessman was a good friend of Michel "Doune" Guérin, a close friend of the Hells Angels who was killed on November 27 in front of his residence in Charlesbourg.
The SPVQ also reportedly informed Mr. Lacroix that his life was potentially in danger in the days that followed.
The latter claims to have spent thousands of dollars to install bulletproof windows and to hire a bodyguard, since the police had informed him that his life was in danger.
Not the first time
About a week before the murder, the company Armoires PMM, owned by Jean-Noël Lacroix and which employed Michel Guérin, had been the target of an arson attack.
"This is not the first time he has been targeted by this type of event. There are still people who clearly have a grudge against him," notes the former investigator.
The wave continues
According to Roger Ferland, this story is part of the wave of violence linked to control of the drug market that has gripped Quebec for the past year.
"Things have calmed down in Quebec City recently, but in other regions, we regularly see arson, destruction of businesses and gunshots. In Montreal, things are shaking. On the North Shore, things are shaking and in Abitibi too."
Asked to react to the two violent events of the night from Thursday to Friday, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, was reassuring about the SPVQ's ability to ensure the safety of the population.
"We are working with the police department to see what they need to prevent this from getting worse. There is no way we are going to experience what Montreal experienced. We are going to take all possible measures to prevent that from happening," he concluded on the sidelines of a press conference on affordable housing.
