Montreal police arrest 7 suspects allegedly linked to cross-border drug ring

Lights flash on a Montreal police cruiser. (CTV News)

Montreal police (SPVM) says it worked with the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to bust a cross-border drug ring and arrested seven suspects on Wednesday.

The arrests took place in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent and Ville-Marie boroughs, as well as in suburbs like Longueuil, Sainte-Catherine, and Mirabel. There were more arrests in Bécancour and the Grand-Mère sector of Shawinigan, according to the SPVM.

Six people were arrested and charged with drug possession and trafficking, as well as conspiracy.

The suspects are Émilie Boudreau, 33, Philippe Charpentier, 34, Theofanis Karvouniaris, 36, Maude Métivier-Gagné, 27, Andrew Prokos, 37, Claude Stevens, 58.

A seventh suspect, a 41-year-old man, was also arrested in Sainte-Catherine. The charges against him have yet to be confirmed.

In a news release, the SPVM says officers seized 4,000 methamphetamine tablets, nearly one kilogram of cocaine, $27,000 in cash, and other evidence after raids in Longueuil and Sainte-Catherine, on Montreal’s South Shore.

The allegations have not yet been tested in court.

The operation was done in tandem with the Longueuil and Trois-Rivières police departments, the DEA and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

It follows raids done in the fall of 2022 in Montreal, Boisbriand, and L’Épiphanie where police seized 103 kilograms of crystal meth and two kilograms of cocaine, worth about $555,000.