Quebec's anti-corruption squad arrested 37 people this morning including Gilles Vaillancourt, the embattled former mayor of Laval, Que.
The squad also arrested former construction entrepreneur Tony Accurso and former Dessau Engineering executive Rosaire Sauriol in a provincewide sweep.
"We [executed] 70 search warrants," said UPAC commisssioner Robert Lafrenière. "We captured approximately 30,000 wiretapped conversations. We have recovered $438,000. One hundred and twenty police officers are involved in today's operation."
Those arrested will face a range of charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and gangsterism.
Vaillancourt was picked up at his Laval apartment early this morning and taken to provincial police headquarters for questioning.
It's the latest arrest for Accurso, who faces allegations of tax evasion as well as fraud, conspiracy, influence-peddling, breach of trust and defrauding the government in connection with an investigation into how the Montreal-area municipality of Mascouche awarded more than $40 million in contracts.
Vaillancourt resigned in November amid mounting pressure from a UPAC investigation and testimony before the province's corruption commission. A few weeks prior the former mayor's safety deposit boxes were searched by UPAC investigators.
That raid coincided with allegations against the mayor that surfaced at the Charbonneau inquiry into corruption in Quebec's construction industry.
A key witness, the former head of the now-bankrupt construction firm Infrabec, Lino Zambito, testified Vaillancourt collected a 2.5 per cent kickback on all public works contracts.
At the time of his resignation, Vaillancourt continued to deny all allegations of corruption.
Managers arrested
"We're facing allegations that, even without proof, are altering the reputations of those in whom you have placed your trust," he said in November. "I am one of these people, and I have been deeply hurt. Regardless of what I do or say, it is clear that the damage has been done."
The latest arrests come several days after the city's manager, Gaétan Turbide, and assistant city manager, Jean Roberge, were suspended from their duties, with pay, for an indeterminate time.
The two men are scheduled to appear as witnesses next week at the province's corruption commission.
Turbide and Roberge worked closely with Vaillancourt.
Laval city council unanimously backed interim mayor Alexandre Duplessis in his motion to suspend the two employees.
Vaillancourt was a political fixture in Laval, on Montreal's North Shore, for nearly four decades. For the 10 years prior to his resignation, his PRO-des-Lavallois party was unopposed at city hall.
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