On December 15th, members of the P.E.I. Organized Crime Task Force arrested 29 year-old Shawn Paquet of Charlottetown for assault and breach of undertaking. Paquet was involved in an altercation with a man at a local bar in Charlottetown on December 2nd while wearing his Hells Angels prospect vest with the “Prince Edward Island” bottom rocker. Police say the incident was caught on video tape.
Paquet was taken before a Justice of the Peace and released on conditions, which include no contact with any Hells Angels members, and will appear in Charlottetown provincial court on January 18th.
Later that day, police located another member of the Prince Edward Island Hells Angels Prospect club and arrested him for two incidents of breaching an undertaking imposed on him for previous charges, which included having no contact with Paquet, which was the case on the date of the altercation. A third member of the club had been arrested previously for breaching his undertaking, in an unrelated incident. Both these persons were released after their arrests.
In the coming months police will be conducting foot patrols in local bars in the Charlottetown area to monitor the activities of organized crime groups. Bar patrols have been used successfully in other jurisdictions to effectively curtail violence, intimidation of members of the public, and drug trafficking associated to these groups that occurs in and around licensed establishments.
The P.E.I. Organized Crime Task Forces is comprised of representatives from Charlottetown Police Services, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Summerside Police Service, and Kensington Police Service.