A Halifax-area man targeted in a large-scale RCMP surveillance operation and who prosecutors say used money gained from cocaine and illicit cannabis trafficking to build a suburban lakeside home with “luxury amenities” has been convicted of a series of crimes in the case.
Gary (Boo) Boudreau, 49, was found guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and possession of the proceeds of crime charges this week in Halifax provincial court, more than four years after he and 13 others were arrested as part of a major police investigation.
Boudreau was a main focus of the investigation, during which officers did covert surveillance on a number of suspects, surreptitiously installed listening probes in two vehicles, wiretapped phones and reviewed extensive financial records.
Judge Elizabeth Buckle said Wednesday her decision was “very lengthy.” She gave only a summary of her conclusions and said a full written ruling would be issued in the future.
However, intriguing evidence is laid out in lengthy written submissions by prosecution and defence lawyers following Boudreau’s multi-day trial, and offers sometimes minute details of the investigation.
Cash in a Louis Vuitton
In one case, an officer used binoculars to peer hundreds of metres across Kearney Lake in Halifax and into the kitchen of Boudreau’s newly built home on the opposite shore. The corporal testified he saw Boudreau hand a white package to an associate, who handed back cash in return.
In another instance, a listening probe in Boudreau’s Acura recorded him and an associate discussing hiring Mexicans and Filipinos to work for $12 an hour in their illicit cannabis grow-op on the outskirts of Halifax. Boudreau said, “They don’t know if it’s f–kin’Â legit, right?”
The submissions show the case revolved as much around money as it did drugs. When officers raided Boudreau’s home on Dec. 9, 2020, they seized $47,620 in cash, including $7,250 found in a Louis Vuitton handbag on the kitchen counter.
The prosecution argued Boudreau frequently used other people to make purchases for him as a way to “distance himself” from his assets and drug operation.
He used his girlfriend’s bank account to buy chemicals known as “cut,” which are used to dilute cocaine, increase the quantity and maximize profits.
He gave cash to a drug dealer friend, Cameron Mombourquette, to buy a $9,769 hot tub for his Kearney Lake home. Video surveillance from Home Depot showed Mombourquette making the purchase, with Boudreau looking on.
Elderly grandfather
In another example offered by the prosecution, Boudreau’s grandfather, who was in his 80s and lived in a mobile home in the Halifax community of Spryfield, was on paper the purchaser of a pontoon boat and trailer for $57,500. Multiple photos showed Boudreau using the boat, which was docked at his house.
“The evidence establishes Mr. Boudreau’s repeated use of nominees and a pattern of attempting to hide purchases and large outlays of cash,” Lee-Ann Conrod, who prosecuted the case alongside federal Crown attorney Len MacKay, wrote in closing submissions.Â
“His laundering of drug money using his grandfather and girlfriend as nominees was easily exposed. It defies logic that a retired elderly man in poor health, living mostly on pensions and government benefits (OAS, CPP and WCB) and a young woman with a minimal income were supporting Mr. Boudreau’s lavish lifestyle.”
Conrod said that over a four-year period, Boudreau hid much of his proceeds from crime by paying for things in cash. He laundered drug money through the construction of his home, which had an in-ground pool and whose kitchen, living room, bathrooms and laundry room featured $43,000 worth of stone.
A “very conservative” estimate, Conrod said, is that Boudreau spent at least $319,421 over and above what he made in legitimate income during the period.
Items RCMP say they seized during the search of 14 locations on Dec. 9, 2020, as part of a large drug investigation. (Submitted by RCMP)
Boudreau did have legitimate sources of income. He owns GMB East Coast Enterprises, which defence lawyer Pat MacEwan wrote in his submissions is a successful drywalling and insulation company that did work on large-scale projects, including apartment buildings.
MacEwan said expert witnesses who testified for the prosecution at trial acknowledged the construction and contracting industry was, he said, “rife with financial irregularities and under the table cash jobs.”Â
The lawyer suggested unreported cash jobs, and other issues, added up to “frailties in the accounting exercise,” making it impossible to prove if any money was derived from crime. Boudreau “denies making any illicit gains,” the lawyer said, noting no cocaine was found in his home or vehicles.
Boudreau’s only other conviction for drug trafficking is from 2004, when he was swept up in a Halifax police investigation targeting a group smuggling drugs into jails and prisons.
Among those also charged in that case was Jimmy Melvin Jr., who would go on to become a well-known crime figure in the city due to a drug feud that escalated between two rival factions, one of them allied to his family.
One of the people charged in the case, Cameron Mombourquette, led police on a high-speed chase when they tried to pull him over. He was stopped when his vehicle was pushed into a power pole. (CBC)
The prosecution alleged that in 2020 Boudreau was the head of a criminal organization. But Buckle acquitted him of three organized crime charges, saying he and his associates did not meet the legal requirements of a “criminal organization.”
There was no evidence of hierarchy, she said, and instead it appears they were “independent contractors who agreed to assist each other for their own individual benefit” rather than working together for the benefit of the group.
But she did convict Boudreau of a number of cocaine-related trafficking charges, finding he aided two other drug dealers by providing “cut,” setting up meetings and encouraging them. She found him guilty of firearms charges related to a shotgun found at his home.
Buckle also convicted Boudreau of money laundering, and of possession of the proceeds of crime related to his home, boat and the cash discovered during the police raid.
“I accept Mr. Boudreau had some unreported income from legitimate sources and may have had some assets that were not accounted for in the forensic accounting,” she said. “However, the funds available to him far exceeded his reported income.”
Boudreau previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cannabis. He will be sentenced on all charges in January. The prosecution may seek the forfeiture of his Kearney Lake house and boat.
A number of people have been convicted in the case. Among them is Mombourquette, who was 23 when he was arrested Dec. 9, 2020, following a wild midday police chase that crossed over Joseph Howe Drive, a busy traffic artery in the city.Â
He later pleaded guilty to drug, gun and proceeds of crime offences. The court was told he had “turned his life around,” was drug-free and had become an electrician. He was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.