The nine men charged with a gangland slaying that went awry

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A homicide involving a conflict between Montreal-area street gangs might have been ordered from behind bars as at least three of the men charged last month, following an investigation by Montreal police and Sûreté du Quebec, were detained when the slaying was carried out.

In July, police arrested 10 people in all, including a woman, as suspects in connection with two homicides. The victim of the first shooting, Noël Garcia-Frias, 32, was killed on June 16, 2023, in Charlemagne, just east of Montreal.

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“Various elements collected by the SQ during its investigation suggest the 32-year-old might have been the victim of mistaken identity,” Montreal police said in a release issued in July when the first four suspects were arrested.

Garcia-Frias had no criminal record. He was driving an Audi Q8, a vehicle similar to one owned by Justice Owusu Tajudeen, a 28-year-old man with ties to a Reds-affiliated street gang who was killed weeks later in Montreal on Aug. 7, 2023.

“(Tajudeen) might have been the real target of the murder committed less than two months earlier in Charlemagne,” Montreal police said. “The major crimes section of the Montreal police and the SQ joined their investigation projects due to the possible link between these two homicides.”

On July 24 and 25, another six people were arrested. A breakdown of the list of the nine men now charged with either one or both of the murders as well as being part of the alleged conspiracy to kill Tajudeen reveals at least three of the men were behind bars when he and Garcia-Frias were killed.

“All (of the nine men who were charged) are believed to be linked to criminal gangs active in the Montreal region,” Montreal police said in July.

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The nine suspects

Andrei Donet, 21: In May, a jury found Donet guilty of the second-degree murder of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, a 16-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed outside his school on Van Horne Ave. in Côte-des-Neiges on Oct. 18, 2021. The Crown’s theory of the case was a rivalry between two groups based in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough was the motive behind Dopwell-Bailey’s death. Donet was identified as being tied to the 51s or the DGs, gangs based in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. He was arrested weeks after Dopwell-Bailey was killed and was detained when both Garcia-Frias and Tajudeen were killed last year.

M’hammed Berberi, 28: He was detained throughout 2023 and was also behind bars when the two victims were shot. He was detained because Berberi had several criminal cases pending against him last year. On May 10, this year, he was sentenced to a seven-year prison term after he pleaded guilty to several charges, including discharging a firearm used in the commission of the offence committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization. On July 7, 2021, in LaSalle, Berberi approached a Range Rover, after exiting his Mercedes. He stuck part of his body in the passenger side of the Range Rover, pointed a firearm at the driver and shouted: “money, money, money!” The driver fled from the vehicle and Berberi fired several shots striking the victim once.

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Sylvain Kabbouchi, 25: He was also behind bars when both homicides were carried out because, since 2022, he has been charged with several crimes, including the slaying of Nitchell Lapaix, a 27-year-old man killed during 2021. Lapaix had close ties to street gang leader Jean-Philippe Célestin. Kabbouchi and Berberi were charged in 2023, along with three other men, with the attempted murder of a fellow detainee at the Rivière-des-Prairies Detention Centre on Jan. 9, 2023. The attempted murder case is still pending.

Romuald Surin, 32: On Aug. 8, 2021, Surin and another man were wounded after someone fired shots toward them as they stood outside a restaurant at Montreal’s Marché Central. Details of the drive-by shooting were included in an intelligence report prepared by a Laval police investigator used as evidence in an unrelated trial at the Montreal courthouse. The report included a photo of Surin posing with several members of 24 Gang, a violent street gang based in Laval’s St-François district. In June, Surin was charged in a different homicide case. He is alleged to have taken part in a shooting in Ahuntsic-Cartierville on May 14 that killed 27-year-old street gang member Christopher Shawn Jean Vilsaint.

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William Beauvais-Bazile, 25: He has no criminal record in Quebec but, in June, Beauvais-Bazile was arrested along with Surin as a suspect in the murder of Jean Vilsaint.

Félix Tremblay, 21: He was not behind bars when the two men were killed, but he was already detained when the two roundups were carried out in July. He was already facing weapons-related charges when the arrests for the murders were carried out.

Johnny Odiesse, 32: He is alleged to be tied to a Laval-based street gang called the Flame Head Boys. Near the end of 2022, he pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded firearm and was sentenced to a 273-day prison term and wilfully obstructing a peace officer.

Jack Shehata, 25: On April 7, 2020, he was sentenced to time served, the equivalent of a 30-month prison term, after he pleaded guilty to recklessly discharging a firearm and possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm that was loaded. He is also alleged to be tied to the Flame Head Boys.

Bradley Phanord Barthelus, 26: He was charged with breaking and entering in Longueuil in 2000, but all of the seven charges he faced in the case were dropped seven months later.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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