Third man arrested in 2022 Montreal shooting linked to organized crime

Montreal police cruisers block of a street in Saint-Michel after a shooting that left a man dead on Thursday, May 11, 2022. (Cosmo Santamaria/CTV News)

Montreal police have made a third arrest in the 2022 death of a man in Saint-Michel who was gunned down in the street days before being sentenced in connection with another murder.

Lee Van Smath Germain, 35, was arrested Monday in the Vancouver area of British Columbia. Police say the arrest follows a major police operation supported by police partners in B.C.

He will be extradited to Quebec, where he is scheduled to appear in court.

The victim, confirmed by sources to CTV News to be 36-year-old Sébastien Giroux, was attacked in broad daylight near Shelley Avenue and Crémazie Boulevard East on May 11, 2022.

Giroux was scheduled to be sentenced two days later, after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact in a May 2017 murder in N.D.G., according to media reports.

This new arrest marks the third as part of this criminal investigation.

Last January, two other suspects, Pedro Kela, 38, and Nicko Bélisle, 27, were also arrested.

The joint investigation, codenamed “Alliance,” aims to solve several murders linked to organized crime that have occurred in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec.

This investigation has led to a dozen arrests since June 2025, police said.

Anyone with information that may be useful to the investigation is encouraged to share it by contacting Info-Crime Montréal anonymously and confidentially at 514-393-1133 or the Criminal Information Centre at 1-800-659-4264.