Photo via Flickr user Mark Strozier
Yesterday morning, Francis Boucher, son of Hells Angels kingpin Maurice “Mom” Boucher, was let out of a provincial prison—by accident.
Boucher, a former member of the Hells Angels’ defunct “Rockers” training school, and now a fugitive, was serving a three-month sentence for uttering death threats to police officers after they were called to a Montreal bar he had threatened to burn down. He had been locked up in Bordeaux prison, north of Montreal, since March 10 and was due out in May.
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Quebec’s Minister of Public Safety Lise Thériault called the situation “totally unacceptable” in a press release issued this morning, adding that further details would not be revealed because of the ongoing investigation.
VICE spoke with Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Gino Paré who painted an equally murky picture.
“Obviously there was a mistake made somewhere, and for the moment we are investigating what exactly that mistake was. But right now it’s too early to confirm,” Paré said.
As absurd as yesterday’s apparent gaffe may seem, it’s actually the second time in two months that a Quebec prisoner has walked out of jail.
In January, Shamy St-Jean was awaiting trial at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention center in Montreal’s east end when he managed to slip out unnoticed by pretending to be his brother Edgar, who was also being held there but was scheduled for release on January 27.
Walking out of prison is ballsy, but nowhere near as bold as the two separate incidents of helicopter jailbreaks that have also taken place in Quebec.
The first took place in 2013 at the Saint-Jérôme Detention Facility on Montreal’s north shore, where two detainees climbed a rope into a hijacked helicopter hovering over the rec yard of the prison. They were eventually found and recaptured following a shootout with police, the CBC reported.
Then last year, three inmates at the Orsainville Detention Centre near Quebec City who were on trial for murder and drug trafficking also fled via helicopter. Their dramatic getaway was filmed via CCTV and released in November by Quebec Superior Court.
VICE also spoke with André Cédilot, an expert on Montreal’s underworld, and even he was puzzled by Boucher breaking out of prison with so little time left to serve.
“He was so close to being released, it’s almost bizarre that he would have concocted this plan.”
“I find it very suspicious. But whether it’s corruption or a bureaucratic error, we still don’t know,” Cédilot says. “If this really was a scheme to escape, he’s going to hide. If it isn’t an escape then it’s in his best interest to turn himself in because if he’s charged with escaping from prison, he will be looking at a few more years behind bars.”
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