| Adrien Dubois |
| The youngest of the infamous Dubois brothers, Adrien was born in 1947. He grew up on the mean streets of Saint-Henri, a rough and poor neighborhood of Montreal. He would follow his brothers into crime and would become one of the city's most important drug traffickers and loansharks. In the 1960s, Adrien and Boxer Di Francesco took control of the Harlem Paradise, a night club on Saint-Antoine street. The business soon became a center for prostitution and generated a lot of cash for Adrien. Several black pimps, who had long controlled the area's sex trade, opposed Dubois but they were dealt with swiftly. When Bryce Richardson, a small gang leader from the west end of the city, wanted to take over the night club, Adrien dispatched Yvon Belzil to take care of the situation. Belzil surprised the gang leader one |
| evening and pumped three bullets into him. Richardson was struck in the spine and left paralysed. Adrien grew in power in the 1970s. With the exception of Claude, he was the most prosperous Dubois brother. From his base of operations in Verdun, he ran an extremely successful loansharking operation and a large scale drug network, which streched as far as Hull where he supplied much of the area's marijuana, hashish, amphetamines, and cocaine. Adrien was the main suspect behind the disappearance of Yvon Bertin, a well-connected criminal and friend of Richard Désormiers. He was dragged out of his home in underwear on November 26, 1971, and forced into an automobile. Bertin had began dealing drugs on Adrien's without permission. His body was never found. He also led the organization in the brutal 1974-75 war with the McSween Gang. Named the "War of the West" in newspapers, the two organizations battled for drug turf in the city's west end. Nine people were murdered and more than a dozen were wounded in the struggle before the Dubois Gang were victorious. In the late 1970s, Adrien opened a clothing business on Saint-Augustin street, in the very heart of Saint-Henri. The business was used as a cover so he could launder his ill-gotten funds and provide a legitimate source of income for almost a dozen of his henchmen. During his brother Claude's trial on first-degree murder charges in 1982, Adrien, in an attempt to keep former Dubois Gang hitman Donald Lavoie from testifying, arranged to have his brother-in-law murdered. He contacted Frank Peter "Dunie" Ryan, leader of the West End Gang, to help him carry out the plot. Ryan hired members of the Hells Angels Montreal Chapter for the hit but police learned of the contract and took the necessary precautions to protect the intended victim. Using information from Claude Jodoin, an informer within the gang, police raided a south-shore home on March 3, 1982 and discovered a ton of hashish hidden inside the building's walls. A Dubois henchman, Paul Provencher, was arrested in the bust and sentenced to four years in prison on drug trafficking charges. According to Jodoin, the drug had belonged to Adrien and he lost his $350,000 investment with the seizure. Police arrested Adrien on June 29, 1982 and charged him with the murder of Jacques McSween, shot to death in Longueuil on October 5, 1974. Adrien's brother Jean-Guy, who was already behind bars on a murder conviction, and Claude Dubeau, who was also jailed awaiting trial for the murder of Richard Désormiers, were also charged with the murder. The trail began on February 1, 1983 and featured testimony from several underworld informants. Donald Lavoie claimed to have been present when the three defendents murdered Jacques McSween and described the event in vivid detail. Paul Pomerleau, a small-time extortionist, and Claude Jodoin, a former Dubois Gang member, also provided damaging testimony. But not all of the jury believed what the rats spewed and the trial, which lasted two and a half months, ended in a deadlock. A new trial was agreed upon. Adrien's lawyer Léo-René Maranda managed to have his client freed on bail until the second trial is scheduled. On June 1, 1983, while liberated, Adrien was arrested by the in a hotel on Sherbrooke street and charged with importing 480 kilograms of hashish. The second McSween murder trial began soon after and consisted of the same three government witnesses. The jury gave little credibility to the informants and took little time reaching their decision. Adrien, his brother Jean-Guy, and Claude Dubeau are aquitted of murder on June 14, 1985. Friends and family of the defendents applauded loudly as the Superior Court jury brought down its verdict. Adrien currently lives in Saint-Adele, just north of Montreal and, according to some newspaper articles, maintains good relationships with the West End Gang, Italian Mafia and the Hells Angels. |
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