There's a lot to be said about the sneaky way hashish was imported through Dorval Airport in the 1970s.
William Browne won't be saying any of it though.
The NDG resident was shot dead outside his home on 29 August 1974 after returning from a trip to Morocco and Spain.
Back in 1975 back you could buy a kilo of hashish in Pakistan for $15 and sell it for $10,000 to dealers in Montreal. Most hashish, however, was coming from Morocco, where it cost $100 a kilo.
William Browne was inside the gang and was trying to reel in The Boss for the RCMP. On his trip to Africa he had been trying to negotiate a large purchase of hashish. Ronald Fewtrell, the gang leader, was with Browne on the trip and the two had met a few hours before Browne's murder. Fewtrell told police that it was impossible for him to have killed Browne because the two were friends. We'll get back to you later on whether Browne's killer was ever apprehended. Fewtrell plead guilty to hash importation and on October 6, 1975 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
About 60 Doval workers were on the take according to a Globe and Mail article, based on a leaked RCMP report. They'd switch tags or take the drug-filled cases off conveyor belts in order to avoid inspection.
There were no shortage of crooks involved in these schemes. Some were never caught and now live in the hills in Westmount. Others fared less well, including Eddy Chiquette and Robert de Courcy killed in November 1973. They were hired to pick up drugs from the airport and got death as their reward.
De Courcy, prior to dabbling in hash at Dorval, was a checker at the port. He had stolen 1,000 pounds of the dangerous tranquilizer phenobarbital during a port strtike in June 1972. Two teens who ingested some of the stuff suffered severe brain damage.
Fewtrell, presumably the guy the following article refers to as The Boss, was a former Montreal police officer. His gang included his nephew Pierre Temar, partner Jerry Rovam annd a customs broker named Philippe Aubert. Andrew McCowan was their Amsterdam connection.
The cops' work was facilitated by a new law that allowed them to use wiretaps in court. Another hash importing gang was led by Valentino Morielli and included Thomas Martel, Giachino Delladonne, Pietro Raschella and Eugene Saint-Jacques, the last two being baggage handlers.
Another hash gang busted in 1975 was led by John James Graham and included James Filler, Moishe Shulman, David Greenberg and the Brit Christopher Neil Richardson. They brought in $15,000 worth of hash, 1,100 pounds, which had a street value of $2,250,000. Quite the markup wouldn't you say?
One of the biggest busts occurred on September 16, 1975. It saw 18 mostly otherwise respectable people nabbed along with 1,400 pounds of hash following a 16 month investigation. Michel Lachapelle, then 28, former fireman and garage owner of Milac Auto on Gouin West, along with his wife Monique 27, brother Luc Lachepelle, 25, Paul Bergon, 28 president of Mirabel Alarm, Claude Bergon, 32, the director of the posh Sainte-Rita private school, Jean-Marie Caron, 30, a QPP officer, his brother Bernard Caron, 31, Pierre-Paul Gauthier, 42 co-owner of a gas station and Jose Dias, 28, Carol Menard, co owner of a chic fashion boutique and his boss Leo Aubut, 50 owner of the Carnival MFG company of St. Therse, Slobodan Gravilovick, 30 a welder, Charles Giroux, 28 a Quebec provincial civil servant, Jean Brais, 28, Gerald Bond, mechanic, Jacques Beaudin, 36, Sheila Cross (Claude Bergon's girlfriend), Gaetane Villeneuve, 22 (Bernard Caron's girlfriend).Among them they managed to put up a half million in bail.
Well, back to Browne, here's the article about him.
Informer's Murder Stalled Mounties
Montreal Star
July 11, 1975,
by Lewis Harris
Until his gangland-style slaying last Aug. 29, few of William Browne's neighbors in NDG even knew he was alive.
Browne was a salesman by trade but because of his odd hours, the only contact with his neighbors was an occasional greeting as he entered or left his modest flat where he lived with his wife and seven-year-old son.
But Browne was a man leading a double life and he came within an ace of delivering to the RCMP a man b4elieved to be the kingpin of a large drug smuggling and theft ring still operating at the Montreal international Airport.
Browne was said to be the kingpin's chief lieutenant but was also an RCMP informant.
The failure to trap the manknown as The Boss, led to Browne's execution and greatly diminished the possibilities of convicting The Boss.
In an internal RCMP report made available to the Toronto Globe and Mail in May and published June 3, Sgt. Jean Leduc, of the RCMP drug squad in Montreal, revealed that the RCMP has the names of 60 suspect airport employees. They believe these employees are still taking bribes from The Boss in return for allowing illegal drugs to flow into the country without customs checks and helping in the theft of valuable cargo from airport warehouses.
Most of the persons named in the report have not been arrested because police to not have enough evidence to lay charges. Sgt. Leduc said. Those named include four 'customs officers, customs brokers, some airlines employees and warehousemen.
"Hashish is coming in here by the ton," Sgt. Leduc commented. "Montreal must be the major supplier for the Canadian market."
"The airport is more corrupt than the harbor ever was," Sgt. Leduc added. "The profits are enormous."
He said hashish, which might cost as little as $15 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) in Pakistan or $100 per kilogram in Morocco, sells for $3,00 per kilogram wholesale in Montreal and up to $10,000 retail when broken into smaller sizes.
Almost all drug shipments are controlled by The Boss. Sgt. Leduc said, adding that drugs find their way into Montreal with no trouble because baggages handlers change tags on bags containing drugs so they won't have to go through customs inspection or switch bags on conveyor belts.
Sgt. Leduc has refused to elaborate on the earlier statements although a few days after they appeared in print RCMP Commissioner Maurice Nadon confirmed that a drug investigation is under way at the aiport.
On Tuesday, The Montreal Star interviewed an attractive woman in her 30s who was Browne's mistress until his death.
The woman who wil be called Mrs. Smith in this article to protect her identity, described a trip she took with Browne to Spain with The Boss and The Boss's wife in an attempt to trap The Boss into making a large drug purchase while under RCMP surveillance.
She said that due to unforeseen circumstances and bad luck, the deal was never completed and Browne's cover wsa blown. He was shot eight times and killed outside his home at 1:30 a.m. less than a week after his return to Montreal.
Here's a rough translation of one report by Le Chimples:
