Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
CTV
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
In some cases, the youth are tortured if things go wrong, according to Yannick Desmarais, a commander with the Montreal Police Service (SPVM).
"For us, we see these young people of 15 to 25 years of age, and we've seen young people from Montreal [go] to Toronto to steal cars, and they get even tortured in Toronto if they aren't successful. So we feel it's very important to work as a team," Desmarais told the House Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Thursday.
MPs on the committee are studying the "Growing problem of car thefts in Canada" and invited officials with the SPVM, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Montreal Port Authority and other witnesses to testify.
The SPVM commander said there is a link between car theft and armed violence, emphasizing that it is not a victimless crime.
"We know that people that are involved regularly, when they're caught, they have firearms. Our investigations and intelligence are showing that a lot of the money for firearms comes from vehicle theft operations," he said, adding that the weapons are used in violent crimes.
