As Laval police kick off anti-extortion operation, 2 cafés are hit by gunfire

One day after Laval police began an operation to crack down on extortion, two cafés were targeted by gunfire.

The shootings took place within 20 minutes of one another.

The first shots struck a café on Saint-Martin Boulevard Est., near De Blois Boulevard, around 1:41 a.m., according to Laval police.

The second café, on Des Laurentides Boulevard, near Richard Street, was hit around 1:57 a.m.

Nobody was present in either café at the time of the shootings.

The targeting of restaurants, bars, cafés and other businesses — either by gunfire or firebombing — is a standard extortion tactic employed by organized criminals.

Laval police dispatched its organized crime investigators to both scenes on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the force said it was attempting to crack down on extortion and urged merchants to come forward and speak to police if they had received threats.

Laval police have seen an increase in extortion-related incidents so far this year, with 61 reports filed as of Oct. 31.

That increase came despite the assassination of Charalambos Theologou, the purported leader of a prominent gang in Laval, the Greeks of Chomedey, who police suspect are involved in extortion.

Extortion has long been a lucrative and competitive industry for organized crime in the greater Montreal area.

Earlier this year, CBC consulted handwritten financial ledgers seized from the home of Theologou in 2019 that police said showed businesses that owed him money. Some of the amounts were over $200,000.