🔗 Share this article

The brazen daylight killing of a prominent Montreal underworld figure inside a peripheral Starbucks lately could indicate a developing, more chaotic and brash landscape when it comes to criminal organizations, observers say.

Power Vacuum Developing

The detentions of alleged high-ranking, older members of the city's organized crime in June has likely resulted in a vacuum – meaning upcoming, junior gangs are attempting to secure territory.

Shooting Incident Details

Police reported at a media update that they were summoned to a Starbucks in Laval, Quebec at about 10.30am on Wednesday because of reports of a shooting inside the coffee shop. A single individual was fatally shot and two additional people were wounded.

Deceased Individual

While police have not verified the deceased's identity, several news organizations have said the man fatally shot was a sentenced drug trafficker, four decades old, also known by an alias. The individual was the leader of a criminal group operating in the area.

Government Remarks

The government representative said: "Available information points to it being an act associated with criminal organizations."

The law enforcement leader informed reporters that while he could not provide details on the ongoing probe, he is familiar with the man targeted due to his "criminal record". "The individual was linked to organised crime," he noted.

Past Record

The targeted individual was first connected formally to criminal activity in fifteen years ago when law enforcement in Montreal detained him and multiple associates in a narcotics distribution probe. He ended up confessing on drug-related charges and was sentenced to a couple of years in prison.

According to reports, the man was detained for a second time in the late 2000s, again for narcotics distribution, and was subsequently handed to another 60 months in prison.

Professional Assessment

A criminology professor explained that criminal organizations in the area used to be characterised around exercising restraint over open confrontations and depended on a established chain of command.

An audacious daylight murder at a popular café suggests there may not be a dominant force enforcing rules – as aggression could harm business when it comes to drug trafficking, commented the analyst.

Structural Collapse

The professor suggested it is plausible that the faction which attacked the criminal boss simply "were unconcerned" about the open demonstration of force in order to neutralize their target.

But the analyst said more plausible is there has been a decline of hierarchy and dominance within criminal networks in Montreal, connected with major apprehensions of the suspected heads of the city's organized crime made in June.

Leadership Arrests

After a 36-month investigation, authorities arrested an alleged organized crime boss and accused him with first-degree murder and other related offences.

Current Situation

The current arrests were seen as the final "final straw" for the long-standing underworld hierarchy, commented the analyst.

It has left a void that younger urban organizations are looking to take over. The latest incident is an indication of an unstable, evolving landscape, he explained.

"We have kind of this plethora of lesser, not super well-organised gangs ... that are competing for dominance," he remarked.