Police in Quebec and Ontario arrested 13 people on Tuesday in connection with the murder of a 45-year-old woman believed to have been mistakenly killed in place of her son, a member of a notorious gang.
The 13 people arrested include women and men ranging in age from 18 to 51 years old. Six of them will appear in court later on Tuesday to answer charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Capt. Marie-Manon Savard with the Quebec City police department said the people arrested on Tuesday were involved in the homicide of Jennifer Morin, who was killed at her Quebec City home in December 2024.
Morin’s death, however, was a case of mistaken identity, Savard said. The alleged killers had been targeting her son, Jeffrey Morin, who is a member of the infamous gang known as the Blood Family Mafia.
Quebec City police headed Tuesday’s operation, which involved more than 200 officers from Ontario Provincial Police and from departments across Quebec and targeted 14 locations.
Raids in Montreal on Tuesday morning took place at an apartment building in the Lachine borough.
One of the people arrested in connection with Morin’s murder was arrested at the Quebec City detention centre, where they had been detained.
The Blood Family Mafia has in recent years challenged the Hells Angels biker gang for control of the drug markets in and around Quebec City.
The resulting power struggle has led to a spate of violent incidents, including multiple killings.
When his mother was killed, Jeffrey Morin had been dealing cocaine, according to information revealed in court when Morin pleaded guilty to drug and weapons trafficking charges in July. He was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
An undercover investigator was buying cocaine and semi-automatic assault weapons from Morin around that time.
The day after the death, Morin told the investigator that he would be late with a drug shipment because his mother had died.
Savard said Tuesday’s police operation was one of the largest in the Quebec City police force’s history.
“It’s an extremely vast police operation, it’s an investigation that includes an enormous amount of analysis that led to today’s raids,” she said.
