Lucien Rivard
   Lucien Rivard became a leader of  the Canadian drug trade  in the 1940s. He  was considered to be  a superior organizer and earned great respect in the Montreal crime world. He possessed international connections and often worked  with the  Cotroni brothers. His main lieutenants were Jean-Louis "Blackie" Bisson, who handled Rivard's Montreal  activities, and  Bob Tremblay, who distributed
Rivard's heroin in Vancouver.

     By the time the 1950s rolled  around, Rivard was the number one man in the heroin trafficking throughout the
country. He expanded  his business in 1954 by becoming  partners with  Giuseppe "Pep" Cotroni. While Rivard had better heroin connections at the time, the Mafia  had much better connections in the United States narcotics market.

     In the  late 1950s, Rivard moved to Cuba where  he continued to run his empire. He was seen meeting  with Corsican traffickers Jean-Baptiste Croce  and Paul Mondolini and, when they  were forced to return to France on criminal charges, Rivard took over their interests.

     In Cuba, Rivard  also ran a large scale gambling ring and amuggled thousands of firearms into Canada. He was often followed  as he met with influential underworld leaders, including Salvatore "Little Sal" Giglio of  the New York based Bonanno Crime Family. Rivard even served  as Giglio's best man at his March 22, 1957 wedding to Florence Anderson.

     On January 8, 1958, during  a visit to Montreal, Rivard and his lieutenant Jean-Louis "Blackie" Bisson were arrested for illegal possession of firearms. He was released the next morning after he provided a registration certificate for his gun. Bisson pleaded guilty and paid a $50 fine.

     Rivard's stay in Cuba came to an end when Fidel Castro overthrew the military dictatorship of Fulgencio  Batista. A clean up  against mobsters  ensued  and Rivard  and many  others, including Meyer Lansky, were  imprisoned. Upon learning  that Rivard had paid  Batista $20,000 a  week to operate freely, Castro wanted him executed. But Montreal lawyer Raymond Daoust contacted the minister of Eternal Affairs in Ottawa and intervened. Rivard was released and shipped to Montreal on June 24, 1959.
   After  Rivard's partner, Giuseppe Cotroni, was sentenced  to ten years in prison in November, 1959, Rivard completely took over the importation of heroin inCanada. The profits he began to rake in was enormous.

     In 1960, Rivard  and Gerry Turenne  purchased  a large summer resort centre in Auteuil, Quebec. The property, valued  at more than $200,000, included  a marina, cottages, dance  hall, swimming pool, restaurant, bar, and  a beach. Rivard  ran the business  and even did much of the repairs himself.

     Quebec Provencial Police  arrested Rivard  and associates  Gilles Brochu  and Roger Beauchamp on  March 7, 1962  for robbing  and beating  Gaétan Raymond, who had  criticized the heroin  trafficker. As Rivard was being led out in shackles, five thugs, led by gangster Réjean Lavoie, ambushed him  and beat him  severely before  police could intervene. Lavoie was beaten horribly one  night while serving
Independent Criminals
a prison sentence for theft and rape and murdered just four days after he was paroled. Few doubt who was behind the murder.

     Rivard  avoided a jail sentence when the  man he, Brochu, and Beauchamp had beaten, Gaétan Raymond, suddenly came down with  amnesia  and couldn't identify them  as his attackers. They were freed for lack of evidence. 

     On January 17, 1964, a  United States federal grand jury, based mainly  on the  information of former  Rivard henchmsn Michel Caron, indicted the  French-Canadian  mobster on  international heroin trafficking charges. He was arrested and placed in Montreal's Bordeaux Jail, while awaiting extradition. Three of his followers were also indicted on similar charges.

     On  March 2, 1965, while  Rivard was still  incarcerated  in Bordeaux  awaiting extradition, he and fellow prisoner  André Durocher asked  a guard for permission to get hoses from the furnace room  to water the outdoor rink. When they  entered the  utility room, Durocher pulled out  a gun (which was actually nothing more than  a carved out piece of  wood blackened with s hoe polish) and  the  two gangsters tied everyone up. They  managed to sneak up behind the guard posted on the  west wall  and  restrained him. The two  French-Canadians then  used a  ladder to climb  the small interior wall and hoses to get over the large exterior wall. They hijacked a man's automobile but not before giving him cab fair. He was called a half an hour later by Rivard and told where he could find his car.

     "The Rivard Affair", as the prison escape became known as, gathered  national  attention. The  Canadian  government put out  a large reward for  the drug trafficker's capture and the  RCMP co-operated with  the FBI, Interpol, U.S. Bureau of  Narcotics, and U.S. Customs  since the first hours  after the escape.

     Reports placed Rivard  and Durocher in Florida, in Peru, in  Mexico, in  Spain, in  New Brunswick, in Trois-Rivieres,
and even in Montreal. Rivard enjoyed the attention and sent several letters to authorities, including an amusing postcard to the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson.

     André Durocher, Rivard's companion, was  apprehended by police on May 28, 1965, after  an anonymous call placed the fugitive in  a Montreal apartment. Rivard was finally caught on July 16, 1965 in  a Woodlands cottage, near Chateauguay. He  and associates  Fred Cadieux  and Sébastien Boucher were lounging around in bathing suits when police burst into the cottage.

     After 136 days on the run Rivard  was brought back to Montreal where the prosecutor  agreed to  withdraw charges of  escaping and armed robbery so that the trafficker could be  extradited to the United States as soon as possible.

     He was escorted to Houston, Texas, where his three co-accused were  already jailed. The trial lasted  only seven days  and, after only three hours of deliberation, the jury declared Rivard guilty. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $20,000.

      Lucien Rivard was paroled on January 17, 1975. He returned to Montreal where, police claim, he  continued to  run his empire. He kept  an extremely low  profile until his death on  February 3, 2002. He was 86 years old.