Former Hells Angels President "Mom" Boucher Plead Guilty to Conspiring to Kill Mobster Who Turned on Mob Boss Vito Rizzuto

 "I fcking love Mom Boucher."
 --Outlaw MC source, to Cosa Nostra News

There are many reasons why Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the former Hells Angels leader in Montreal, Canada, serving life sentences for murder, would've wanted to kill longtime member of the Montreal underworld Raynald Desjardins.

Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the former Hells Angels leader in Montreal,
Maurice “Mom” Boucher.

For the nonce, we can only speculate about the “why” of it, as Boucher’s motives were not included in the RCMP’s summary of facts presented during last month’s proceeding.

What is known is that Boucher and Desjardins communicated frequently with each other in 1993. Around two years later, Boucher, a charismatic, extremely violent leader of the HA's Quebec Nomads chapter, made millions via a drug-trafficking (primarily cocaine) alliance forged with Vito Rizzuto, Montreal’s legendary Cosa Nostra boss. 

Vito Rizzuto, Montreal Cosa Nostra boss.
Vito Rizzuto, Montreal Cosa Nostra boss.


Boucher essentially murdered, retired, or scared away every “independent” drug dealer in the province who didn't submit to him (allegedly, including other Hells Angels members; Boucher, who has since been expelled from the Hells Angels, ran the Nomad chapter, which was not geographically bound).




Together, Boucher and Rizzuto “owned” the drug business in Montreal, with Rizzuto’s Cosa Nostra bringing in the drugs, and Boucher’s Nomads (with help from Canada’s Irish mob, which had a stranglehold over the port of Montreal) distributing them to the dealers who sold them to the public.

 Rizzuto died of cancer in 2013 at age 67.

 Boucher, 64, plead guilty last month to conspiring to assassinate Desjardins (a news development that didn't earn many headlines in the US media; I couldn’t find one). He'll be sentenced later this month.

Boucher has been serving three concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole until 2022. (While in the U.S. a life sentence is a life sentence, in Canada it's not.)

The Montreal Gazette reported:

Boucher — who was behind bars when the plot (to kill Desjardins) was hatched in 2015 and is still serving life sentences for issuing orders that led to the deaths of two provincial prison guards and the attempted murder of another in 1997 — planned to kill Desjardins after Desjardins admitted to plotting to kill (Bonanno boss Salvatore “The Iron Worker”) Montagna...

A Sicilian born in Canada, Montagna had been deported from Elmont, in New York's Nassau County on Long Island, to Montreal and apparently was trying to assume a high-profile and lucrative position in Canada's underworld.

Boucher wanted to assassinate Desjardins at the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines penitentiary when Desjardins was supposed to be transferred to the regional reception center. (Desjardins pleaded guilty on July 6, 2015, to conspiring to assassinate Montagna, who was killed in November 2011.) However, Desjardins sentencing was repeatedly delayed, so the transfer from the Montreal Detention Centre didn't happen in any predictable fashion.

Boucher was serving his sentence at another part of the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines penitentiary at the time.

Someone (unidentified in the summery) who visited “Mom” was the intermediary who sent a message to someone else (also not identified) on the outside that Boucher wanted Desjardins killed.

 Boucher supposedly told the visitor:

“Euh. In the affairs of the Mafia … OK? If he comes here I know someone who can kill him, if he wants. Because, to me, (Desjardins) will be brought here (at Ste-Anne-des-Plaines). If he comes here, we can kill him.”

Desjardins was a former Rizzuto confidant who served a long prison sentence, believing he'd  taken a fall to protect Rizzuto, who was not as appreciative as Desjardins thought he should've been. (However, according to reports, Desjardins lived like a king behind bars, threatening everyone and getting whatever he wanted. Eventually, after trying to poison another inmate, he was transferred to another harsher prison, a maximum security institution.)

Desjardins went on to head up a rival faction that sought to usurp the Mafia boss in a violent years-long confrontation that began when Rizzuto was plucked from the streets and eventually locked up in an American prison for his role in the 1981 murders of three Bonanno capos (Philip "Phil Lucky" Giaccone, Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, and Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera).

Yes, former Bonanno boss Joe Massino’s decision to flip was a direct contributor to the mob war waged in Montreal and beyond, a battle that may well be ongoing even now. In 2010, Desjardins formed an alliance with Montagna to take control of the Montreal Mafia. The alliance fell apart, and Desjardins plotted to have Montagna killed after someone tried to kill Desjardins in Laval in September 2011.

By pleading guilty, Boucher avoided having a jury trial that was supposed to begin a week later.

The case will enter the sentencing stage on May 11.


In November of 2015, law enforcement made major high-profile arrests in Montreal. Those busted included the two then-alleged leaders of the Rizzuto crime family: Rizzuto's son, Leonardo, a lawyer, and Stefano Sollecito, the son of long-time Rizzuto clan member Rocco "Sauce" Sollecito. Quebec police rounded up and arrested a total of 48 people following a nearly three-year-long investigation.

Boucher was handcuffed while in his jail cell and his daughter, Alexandra Mongeau, 25, also was arrested for allegedly passing on Boucher's messages. It was reported in 2015, that his daughter, who may be the unidentified person in the “summary” was conveying messages that were part of the plan to murder Desjardins.

Projects Magot and Mastiff explored links between the Mafia, the Hells Angels, and Montreal-area street gangs in January 2013.

Desjardins was once Rizzuto's right hand man. But his feelings toward Vito had changed once he departed prison in 2004. Desjardins and brother-in-law Joseph DiMaulo sought to conspire with other Quebec mobsters, as well as members of Ontario's Ndrangheta.

Some eight years later, in November 2012, DiMaulo was murdered, causing some confusion as to who exactly was doing all the shooting in Canada and why.

“In Montreal, there’s a state of war,” Pierre de Champlain, a retired RCMP organized crime analyst, said at the time. “People are very careful. They don’t want to be seen at the church.”

Rizzuto completed his sentence and returned to Canada with word that he'd written out two lists, one consisting of friends, the other for enemies. Di Maulo had been a trusted associate of the Rizzuto Sicilian crime family, even though Di Maulo was Calabrian. His ties harkened back to Rizzuto’s Calabrian predecessor, Frank Cotroni.

Basically, Di Maulo was not believed to be on Rizzuto’s hit list, so no one really knew what the hell was going on at the time.... Later it  was determined that  Di Maulo was killed for betraying the Sicilians.

 Sal "The Iron Worker" Montagna, deported from the U.S., joined Desjardins group, which planned to begin striking at the Rizzuto clan while Vito was in a Colorado prison serving a 10-year bid for his role in the slaying of three Bonanno captains in the early 1980s. (Apparently, Desjardin's group had been preparing to assassinate none other than Vito Rizzuto himself, before he was arrested in Montreal for eventual extradition.)

Desjardins caused a war that upset Boucher's multimillion -dollar drug business.

Mom Boucher
In 1987 (reportedly on 1 May, 1987) Maurice Boucher became a member of the Hells Angels Montreal Chapter.

Montreal gangster Raynald Desjardins
Montreal gangster Raynald Desjardins.

Around 1995 (reportedly 24 June, 1995) he formed a Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels and essentially cornered the drug market throughout Quebec via an alliance with Rizzuto, who apparently respected Boucher when he emerged as the victor of the so-called Quebec Biker War, which ran from 1994 until 2002 and claimed 162 lives, plus hundreds injured.

When Montreal police focused on investigating the Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels, Boucher sought to limit the probe using intimidation.

In May 2002, Mom Boucher was found guilty on two counts of murder for the June 26, 1997, murder of prison guard Diane Lavigne and the September 8, 1997, murder of prison guard Pierre Rondeau and one count of the attempted murder of prison guard Robert Corriveau.

He is sentenced to three concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole until 2022. (This conviction came after Mom Boucher received an initial acquittal over these charges in 1998, at which point law enforcement performed further investigations, including finding an informant, Stéphane “Godasse” Gagné, who was also involved in the murders.)












Comments