The RCMP took stock of its operation against a Quebec organized crime money laundering network
(image): The sumptuous $ 7M residence of Nader Gramian-Nik, the alleged leader of the Ontario branch of the network, located in Vaughan.
It is thanks to a sort of "world crime bank" that bikers and the Quebec underworld have been able to launder a sum of narcodollars amounting to nine digits.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) gave details yesterday to the vertigo of the international money recycling network that its police officers dismantled Monday in the Collector operation .
"I can tell you that we are in the hundreds of millions of dollars," said the lead investigator of this project, François-Olivier Myette, speaking about the cash bundles that Quebec organized crime has entrusted to this network since 2013.
The Hells Angels and five mafia factions of various origins have benefited from what the RCMP has compared to a "clandestine banking system" to wash its millions from criminal activities or to pay drug producers in Colombia, Mexico or China .
The RCMP illustrated the million-dollar route organized by Quebec organized crime to the money-laundering network that was dismantled on Monday.
Headquarters in Dubai
Every week, the police observed mail from Montreal with suitcases stuffed from $ 250,000 to $ 1 million to "drop" them in exchange offices in Toronto.
But they are accomplices in Dubai, where the recyclers had significant capital, of which "a large part" came from Iran, who orchestrated the transfer of funds in exchange for generous commissions.
The Canadian heads of the network will be punished where it hurts: in their great lifestyle and savings from tax evasion and laundered funds.
The federal police and the Canada Revenue Agency seized or blocked seven residences and four bank accounts worth nearly $ 23 million. Properties that could be confiscated for the benefit of the state.
This spinning photo shows a Montreal courier on the network carrying a suitcase full of money to launder.
A $ 7 million castle
The harvest includes $ 7 million from Ontario network leader Nader Gramian-Nik and the Laval condo from the organization's alleged leader, Mohamad Jaber.
The RCMP also seized $ 8.7 million in cash and $ 2.2 million in drugs.
"When you attack their money, they are hit in their motivation to commit crimes. It's not people like you and me who get up in the morning to come and work and pay their taxes, "said Superintendent Martine Fontaine, RCMP Criminal Investigation Officer.
Police confiscated $ 2.2 million in narcotics, including 15 kg of hashish.
The investigation is continuing and further arrests may be added on Monday.
The Journal has learned that the police are interested in an obscure businessman who paid cash a $ 400,000 condo in a tower near the Bell Center in 2017, and who rented his house in Laval at alleged Quebec number two in the network of launderers, Kamel Ghaddar.