Picked up by plainclothes RNC officers a day earlier on a Canada-wide warrant, Leblond didn’t try to kid himself when Judge Jim Walsh told him that he was being remanded in custody to await the arrival of Quebec City police officers to take him home.
“I’m pretty sure they will come,” Leblond told the judge in a thick Québecois accent.
“If they don’t come in six days, you’ll be released,” Walsh replied.
“I don’t think so,” Leblond replied, laughing.
“I don’t think so, either,” Walsh said.
Leblond, 31, is facing charges of aggravated assault in connection with an attack on a man at Quebec City’s Red Lounge bar in April 2016. Leblond allegedly beat the man in the head so badly that he still suffers from the effects. Police in Quebec immediately issued a provincial warrant for Leblond’s arrest and, upon learning in April of this year he was possibly in Alberta operating a construction company, issued an Alberta warrant.
Last month, police learned he was no longer in Alberta, and issued a country-wide warrant for his arrest.
Earlier this week, RNC officers received information from Quebec police suggesting Leblond was in St. John’s. Plainclothes investigators found him at a local hotel Tuesday evening, and police say Leblond tried to run away when he realized he was about to be arrested. Officers chased him and nabbed him in the hotel’s parking lot.
Leblond is well known to police in Quebec City and has a long criminal history, with multiple convictions for drug trafficking, uttering threats, extortion, assault, intimating police and correctional officers, and other charges. He is reported to be the founder of the now-defunct street gang Quebec Blue Dragon Crew, and a former leader of 9 Gang, a street gang present in certain areas of Quebec.
Leblond was remanded to Her Majesty’s Penitentiary for six days, during which time Quebec City police will arrive and take him into their custody.
“We’re going to come get him,” a Quebec City police spokesman told The Telegram. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
