Police arrested three suspects Wednesday morning in the death of a cocaine trafficker who was gunned down at a car wash in St-Léonard four years ago.
In a statement, the Montreal police said the suspects — Patrick Robert, 52, Michel Duci, 56, and André Carrier, 58 — were arrested in Terrebonne, Mascouche and L’Épiphanie.
They are scheduled to be charged Wednesday afternoon with first-degree murder.
They are alleged to have killed Stéphane Dupuis, 51.
Duci, a resident of Mascouche, was previously arrested following the homicide and was charged with a series of weapons-related offences.
According to a judgment made in Duci’s case last year: Dupuis “was shot and killed by two masked individuals in Montreal on April 12, 2022, at 10:31 a.m. while he was in his vehicle, while in line at a car wash. The two individuals fled the scene in a black CRV located in an adjacent parking lot. A third individual was the driver. The CRV was later found burned out not far from the scene.”
“The two individuals fled the scene in a black CRV located in an adjacent parking lot. … The CRV was later found burned out not far from the scene,” a judgment reads. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
The decision goes on to say that a witness claims to have seen three people get out of the CRV, which was stolen and had a fake license plate, and into a Chevrolet Equinox.
“From there, investigators traced the events involving the vehicles potentially involved, focusing on surveillance camera footage from locations in Montreal, L’Assomption, L’Épiphanie, and on Highway 40 between Montreal and Repentigny, which led them to Carrier and Robert,” the judge in Duci’s case wrote last year.
“Note that the day before the murder, shortly after going to (a location related to the homicide), the Ram was seen returning to a gas station, before going back there. Two men are on board. They are identified as Robert (driver) and the second as Carrier (passenger).”
On March 19, 2025, at the Montreal courthouse, all of the weapons-related charges filed against Duci were placed under a stay of proceedings.
In 2008, Dupuis was sentenced to a 66-month prison term after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and drug trafficking.
The charges arose from an investigation linked to Project Colisée, a large-scale investigation into the Montreal Mafia that produced dozens of arrests. Dupuis was also fined more than $120,000 for not reporting personal income between 2000 and 2005 while making about $800,000 through drug deals.
While under investigation in 2003, police gathered evidence linking Dupuis to four deals involving large quantities of cocaine. He was charged with trafficking with two other people, including Francesco (Chit) Del Balso, a Mafia leader who was killed on June 5, 2023, in Dorval.
“Several investigative steps have been taken over the past four years to solve this homicide, which is believed to be linked to organized crime,” the Montreal police wrote in the statement. “Searches were conducted at residences associated with the suspects. A complete investigation file has been submitted to the prosecutors of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), and the various pieces of evidence gathered will be made public at trial.”
This report will be updated.