Alain Charron
    Alain Charron  was  born  in  Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, in 1948. He moved to Montreal  and became associated with the Dubois brothers, who began making  a name for themselves in the late 1960s. Over the years, he  would become  especially close to  Adrien, the youngest of the  nine  Dubois brothers, and  Donald Lavoie, who  the  media once described as Charron's "blood brother."

     Police raided Charron's North-Dame street  apartment on October 4, 1974, and seized  an  assortment of firearms, some ski masks, and hand cuffs. They  arrested Charron, Maurice Dubois, Roland Dubois, René Dubois, and  Réal Lévesque but  were  forced  to  release  them later that night for lack of proof.

     Charron blammed Henry Fernandez for  having tipped police  about the raid on his apartment. He also owed Charron $5,000. Charron and Donald Lavoie murdered Fernandez and Linda Maiore, who just happened to be with him that day, on February 22, 1978. The two were  arrested and eventually acquitted of the crime.  

     During the  winter of 1978, according to Donald Lavoie, he  and Charron murdered Jean Carreau in a  chalet  in  Lac Beauport. Accompanied by  Jean Tremblay  and  Claude Marcoux, Charron  and Lavoie  wanted  to eliminate Carreau  so that  they could  replace him  for  a planned  armed robbery at the Universite of Laval. The victim's bones would be found in the woods by  a jogger and his dog.

     When Lavoie turned government  informant  in 1980, Charron retreated to a  Laurentian Cottage, near Claude Dubois'. He also began to act as Dubois bodyguard.

     On January 17, 1981, Charron and his girlfriend, along with Claude Dubois and his wife, decided to get away from the stress they  were facing, because of  Lavoie's defection, and left for the United States. Armed with false identification, as they were not allowed to leave the country, they arrived at the Ogdensbury, New York border, where  immigration officers discovered  Dubois  and his  wife's real identification papers. The two  were held for  a few hours and returned to Canada. Charron  and his girlfriend were able to entrer and two days later, thanks to the help of two of the gang's soldiers, Dubois  and his wife gained  entry into the United States. The four of  them vacationed in Florida for three weeks before returning to Montreal.

     Lavoie revealed  authorities in  January, 1982, that Charron  was responsible for  the  murder  of Jean Carreau. Charron learned of the news and went into hiding.

     In February, 1982, a suitcase cotaining 50 pounds of  hashish was sent from  Charron in  Miami to Schenectady, New York, where it  was  supposed to be  smuggled  into  Canada for  sale. But the suitcase  was lost in the mail  and Charron travelled to New York to help locate it. It  was eventually found but  not before  the  drug had  deteriorated  substantially. Once  in  Montreal, Yvon Belzil  and Frank "Dunie" Ryan, the leader of the West End Gang, had a lot of trouble selling it.  

     He was  arrested in  West Palm Beach, Florida  in May, 1983, as he  was  arriving for  a doctor's appointment. He had been  changing location  and identities  every three  months  as a  precautionary measure. His extradition to Canada was  approved four months later and  was formally charged with Carreau's murder on November 9, 1983.

     The trial began in  June 1985. During the trial, Judge Jean-Luc Dutil  refused to allow  Charron's lawyer  to  ask  informant  Donald Lavoie  a certain  question. The  defense  challenged  the  judge's decision but the Supreme Court of  Canada finally dismissed their appeal in 1990. The trial continued and Charron was eventually acquitted.

     In Autumn of 1992, Charron was among 19 people arrested in Baleine, Nova Scotia  and charged with importing 53 tons of  hashish. They were found in possession of 27 tons, with  a value of $365 million. Two fishing boats were seized in the bust.

     In January, 1993, while he  was out on bail, American  authorities discovered 50 kilos of cocaine hidden in  a secret department of a Cadillac that  had been rented out to a certain Alain Charron. The drug had been shipped from South America to Buffalo and  was arranged to be smuggled across the border into Canada.

     Charron was arrested as he exited an  airplane in Nassau, Bahamas, where he intended to spend a few days in the sun, on  February 17, 1996. The United States charged him with the  Buffalo seizure ten days later.

     Things only got worse for Charron. His name again came up in  March, 1996, in connection to a popular tavern in Saint-Sauveur. The bar  was  among  seven locations raided by  the  RCMP in  the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships, and Montreal. Charron's home  in Val-Morin  was  also  among those raided. Police seized $20,000 in cash, computer systems, a  coin collection valued  at $20,000, more than 100 boxes of documents, and a 1946 Bentley. Police explained that the raids were carried  out to determine  whether Charron and his associates could be charged with living off the profits of narcotics trafficking. 

     Charron, who is supected in over 14 murders, asked the Bahamas government to be given status of  habeas corpus but  the country's Supreme Court  authorized Charron's  extradition to the  United States on March 17, 1998.

     His lawyers  appealed  the  court's decision but failed. Charron was  escorted  back to the United States, where, in June 2001, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

     On  June 18, 2002, he was  transferred to the Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines  penitentiary in Quebec to finish serving his sentence for cocaine trafficking. He still faces hashish trafficking charges from his 1992 arrest.
Dubois Gang