Raymond Desfossés (22 September 1950 – 31 July 2024), also known as "Trifluvien", was a Canadian gangster and senior member of the West End Gang of Montreal.
Born in Trois-Rivières, Desfossés joined the Montreal-based West End Gang in the early 1970s and he became closely associated with the group's leaders, Frank "Dunie" Ryan and Allan "the Weasel" Ross.
[6] On 8 August 1984, Desfossés was arrested on charges relating to a $134,000 Brink's truck robbery which took place at a Knob Hill Farms food terminal in Pickering, Ontario on 29 June 1984.
[2] Desfossés was ultimately acquitted of the charges on 29 January 1990 when judge Richard Lovekin ruled that the warrant used by police to raid his residence in August 1984 had been obtained illegally.
Strong was identified by a witness, however, and the Montreal telephone number of Ross' wife, Elaine Cohen, was also found by police on Singer's person.
[1] According to testimony from Montreal drug trafficker-turned-Crown witness Gaétan Lafond, Désfosses visited him in Florida in 1990 and warned him that the Montreal "Consortium" – a committee made up of the West End Gang, the Rizzuto crime family and the Hells Angels that fixes drug prices in the city – had sent him to tell Lafond that the crime bosses of Quebec were unhappy with him as he was selling cocaine at too low a price.
On 18 March 1991, Gallant assassinated West End Gang associate Richard "Ricky" McGurnaghan at the Olympic Tavern in Pointe-Saint-Charles in another killing ordered by Desfossés.
He was held at the Parthenais Detention Centre in Montreal while challenging his extradition to Florida, which was approved in September 1997 after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal.
[4] In November 1998, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused Desfossés, Roger Forgues, Pierre "Panache" Tremblay, and four others of importing 210 kilograms of cocaine into Quebec in early 1987.
[11] Desfossés aligned himself with the Rock Machine during the final years of the Quebec Biker War, and he put a $250,000 murder contract on the head of Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher in the summer of 2000.
[4] Desfossés also ordered the killing of Hells Angels associate and loanshark Robert "Bob" Savard, who was shot dead by Gallant at a restaurant in Montréal-Nord on 7 July 2000.
[4] On 8 September 2004, Desfossés and 25 other criminals linked to the West End Gang, Hells Angels, and the Mafia were arrested in Project Calvette, an RCMP investigation that revealed he was the ringleader of a network that imported cocaine from South America to Quebec.
[3] RCMP inspector Serge Thériault stated following the arrests: "(Desfossés) has associations with all the major criminal organizations, from bikers to the Italian Mafia, and he had contacts in South America, Europe and Asia".