 |
 |
| Frédéric Faucher |
| Fred Faucher was born on December 16, 1969. Not much is public of his early years but he grew up in and around Quebec City and, by the early 1990s, he was an up-and-coming member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club's Quebec chapter. On July 14, 1994, Faucher and four Rock Machine were arrested in a hotel room as they planned an attack on members of the Evil Ones, a Hells Angels puppet club. Police confiscated two pistols, three radio-detonated bombs, and twelve pounds of dynamite. He was convicted but received a short jail sentence. The Rock Machine was obsessed with becoming a member of one of |
| the "big five" biker gangs- the Hells Angels, the Outlaws, the Bandidos, the Pagans, and the Sons of Silence. He settled on the Texas-based Bandidos MC and wrote to Swedish members and explained the violent war taking place between the Rock Machine and Hells Angels. Faucher, accompanied by fellow Rock Machine members Johnny Plescio and Robert "Toutou" Léger, tried to enter Sweden on June 18, 1997 to attend the Bandidos Helsingborg memory run for fallen comrades. However, their plans were cut short when Swedish police refused them entry because of their criminal records. The bikers were detained 24 hours and deported back to Canada. But Faucher remained determined. On July 14, 1997, with members Johnny Plescio and Paul "Sasquatch" Porter (who has since alligned himself with the Hells Angels) flanking him, Faucher attended a bike show in Luxembourg. There, the Canadians was seen meeting with top members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. Fred Faucher was the police's prime suspect of the July 24, 1997 attempted murder of Hells Angels Nomad member Louis "Melou" Roy. Roy survived, despite being struck four times, and no one was brought up on charges. |
| On September 11, 1997, the club's president, Claude "Ti-Loup" Vézina, was arrested and Faucher became the Rock Machine's new leader. Police raided the home of Faucher's brother, Jean-Judes, who is also a Rock Machine, in December 1999. Within the residence, cops found photo-albums loaded with pictures of Hells Angels members and associates. When law enforcement discussed a new anti-gang law, Faucher and Maurice "Mom" Boucher, leader of the Hells |
| Angels, decided to meet and call a truce. Accompanied by lieutenants, the biker leaders first met in Quebec City's courthouse and then at the trendy Bleu Marin restaurant on Montreal's Crescent Street to come to an agreement. A photographer from the crime tabloid Allo Police was invited to capture the moment and he did so, snapping a now infamous picture of Faucher and Boucher in a friendly handshake. The peace did not last long and, less than two months later, gang members were back to shooting one another in the streets. Fred Faucher was arrested with Marcel "Le Maire" Demers, a founding Rock Machine member, on December 6, 2000. Police reported that Faucher was at the head of a drug ring that distributed two kilograms of cocaine a month in the Montreal area. The biker boss was, police say, earning $250 thousand a year from cocaine trafficking alone. He pled guilty to 28 charges and, on May 11, 2001 was sentenced to 12 years in prison. |