Background on the Haitian street gang murders

   Bo-Gars street gang boss Chenier Dupuy parked his champagne-coloured SUV at the Galeries d'Anjou around dinner time on Friday August 10, only to be ambushed by two still-unapprehended black men who shot him through the driver's side window.
  His company at the time was Hansley Joseph, who was shot in the side but managed to flee into the mall to safety, as he dashed bleeding towards the bathroom of a restaurant, leaving a trail of blood, leading diners to immediately call for help.
   The two guys were in their thirties and here's a little background on who they were, based on the court documents linked to within the text below.
  First rewind to 2008: Dupuy was released on weapons charges on September 7, 2008. He would be back in trouble very soon. Three days later he was shot in an altercation with other black guys at the Solid Gold Club. He survived.
  Soon after, police watched Dupuy pick up cocaine, marijuana and crack on 22 October 2008 at 1 p.m.
   The stash was put into his girlfriend Stephanie Castrilli's Lexus, which he was driving after parking it at the Battaglia garage in Montreal North. According to court documents, Dupuy met frequently with garage owner Anthony Battaglia who police reported to be a supplier of drugs.
   Dupuy was sentenced to his six-plus years in February 2011. Note the math: he was given the sentence two years after being convicted, but with time served, he only had 20 months left. He tried to appeal his sentence but it didn't work. He served less than four of the six years.
    His girlfriend Stephanie Castrilli plead ignorance but prosecutors pointed out that there was no way that she was oblivious to Dupuy's drug operation. The evidence of her knowledge and possible complicity of the drug ops was strong: there was a room in their apartment that she wasn't allowed to enter, the only measuring cup was to prepare crack cocaine, she was hauling over $3,000, mostly in twenties in her purse.  
   Castrilli, of small stature compared to the gianormous Chenier Dupuy, claimed that she was going to use the fat wad of cash to pay for a hairdressing course, as there are hairdressers in her family.
  She was convicted of two crimes, he was convicted of four drug-related charges. At issue was whether they lived together, which they denied, but it was made pretty clear that they lived here.
   Ok. So now we're up to date on Chenier.
   The other guy shot recently at the Galeries D'Anjour was not as highly-targeted. Hansley Joseph had previously served as the right-hand man to Bernard Mathieu, longtime top dawg of the Pelletier Gang. Joseph was among 15 Haitian gangsters convicted in a big 2007 gang roundup, based on wiretaps.
   They were: Bernard Mathieu, 35, Hansley Joseph, 27, Réginald Casimir, 36, Jean-Yves Longin Valbrun, 27, Jean-Robert Pierre Antoine, 39, Célonie Mervilus, 39, Roger Léger, 54, Jean-Pierre Joseph, 30, Serge Hadley Mussotte, 30, Roberto Aurélius, 30, Clinton St-Thomas, 30, Loukens Fevrius, 24, Wilson Longin, 37, Joël Samedy, 44, Valter Fernandes, 31, Jean Beauvoir, 42 (whose book is on my desk right now and who I interviewed elsewhere on this site), Pierre Richard Coulanges, 23, Fernandes Pierre, 42, Lyonel Rosemberg, 27, Jean-Marie Saint-Louis, 43osman Ali, 27, Gérard-Charles Placide, 44, Jean Kedner Dorcely 36.
  For his role as Mathieu's assistant, Hansley Joseph received one of the longest sentences of the group. He was given five years and nine months in February 2007. He did not serve that entire sentence.
  Mathieu, the ringleader, got 10 years but I'm not sure if he's still inside or not.
  Joseph was mentioned 88 times in this trial document, which discloses some interesting stuff about what went on in the Pelletier gang, a gang that clearly didn't worry too much about wiretaps. One interesting anecdote is that three cops were playing undercover Italian drug dealers and demanded to speak to the leader of the gang Mathieu, who simply refused, surely sniffing a trap.
   There is also a bit about a woman named Nadege who was caught with a couple of keys of cocaine after landing in Montreal from Haiti. It was said that she stole the cocaine but Mathieu covered for her.
   Other reports discuss how Mathieu, a small guy with glasses, was weeping in the courthouse during the trial and renouncing gang life. Other suspects apparently considered themselves voodoo practitioners.  
   But anyway, after Hansley Joseph did his time, he jumped from the Pelletier gang to being a close associate or bodyguard of the Bo Gars leader, at least one can assume as much because the two were traveling together that day.
   Police sources are supposedly saying that the whole assassination thing is part of an attempt made by the Hells Angels to control the street gangs, under Gregory Wooley, the only black in the biker gang.
   There has also been much talk about the connection between the Haitian street gangs and the war which devastated the Rizzuto clan, whose leader is set to be released in October from a Colorado prison.