Former Montreal-area daycare manager pleads guilty to smuggling ghost guns across Canadian border

Some of the guns that were smuggled by Stacy St-Pierre on July 14, 2024. (Source: RCMP/Court records)

A former Montreal-area daycare manager who was arrested in 2023 by the RCMP has pleaded guilty to smuggling ghost guns across the Canada-U.S. border.

Stacy St-Pierre, 43, entered the plea at the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu courthouse on Wednesday, admitting he imported six Glock-style Polymer 80s.

He was one of the managers of Garderie Precious Cargo, which has two locations in Vaudreuil and St-Lazare. His spouse, 46-year-old Ruby Sharma — also a manager — was arrested but was acquitted of all charges on Wednesday.

• READ MORE: Parents shocked after two Montreal-area daycare managers charged with smuggling ghost guns

According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court, an RCMP border camera captured footage of an unidentified man who drove his black Jeep Gladiator to the Canadian border in Rouses Point, N.Y. on July 14, 2023, at around 3 p.m. and threw a black box filled with weapons into a field on the Canadian side. He drove away and, a few minutes later, St-Pierre arrived in his black Infiniti QX60 on the Canadian side in Lacolle, Que.

He made a phone call and then got out of the car to pick up the box of weapons and returned to his vehicle.

When an RCMP patrol car arrived minutes later, he threw the box into the grass.

“The weapons box bounces open, scattering its contents across the long grass,” the document stated.

Once the officer met up with him, St-Pierre — with his fly down — told the officer that he had stopped to urinate as he was on his way home from a golf club. The officer, who did not see St-Pierre throw the box earlier and did not know that another man had thrown the box over the border, cleared him to leave.

But minutes later a second patrol car arrived on scene and the officer noticed the box of weapons discarded in the grass.

The two officers pursued St-Pierre and arrested him at 3:33 p.m.

“The guns were all functional and in good firing condition. Each gun has a 10-round magazine,” according to the court document. Ghost guns are typically made from assembled parts or 3D printers, making them difficult for police to trace.

St-Pierre did not have a firearm licence when he was arrested. He had one prior offence on his criminal record for impaired driving in 2006.

The Mounties said at the time that the daycare where he worked had nothing to do with the charges.

One of the parents whose kids attended the daycare and pulled the child out after charges were laid said she was relieved by the outcome of the case but will be closely watching what the judge decides at the sentencing hearing next week.

“I’ll evaluate how I feel when I know what the sentence is,” the parent told CTV News on Wednesday.

The Crown prosecutor is seeking three years in prison.

St-Pierre’s case was adjourned to April 30.