Quebec invests $5M in Montreal police service's effort to crackdown on illegal firearms

Since the beginning of the year, Montreal police say they have seized 250 illegal firearms.

Fourteen of these weapons were confiscated by the new anti-arms trafficking squad that, formed on Feb. 22, goes by the French acronym, ELTA.

To help build this new squad, Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said $5 million over two years will be invested in the Montreal police service, the SPVM, and the first payment of $2 million will be made this year.

She said this investment is needed to allow citizens to regain some peace of mind, because it is not normal to worry about the rise of violence in the city.

The number of violent armed offences more than doubled — increasing by 107 per cent — in Montreal from 2019 to 2020, according to the minister.

"The number of attempted murders with firearms is said to have increased by 39 per cent during the same period," she said.

Montreal police Chief Sylvain Caron said ELTA will be improved in the coming months, with the objective of developing expertise in suppressing firearm trafficking — intercepting weapons before they end up in the hands of criminal gangs.

"One less weapon, for me, is one less victim and a hundred secure citizens," said Caron.

Every weapon seized, be it by police on patrol or ELTA investigators, is of great importance, he said.

ELTA was, until this announcement, funded by the SPVM's existing budget, and the second phase of its development was in jeopardy due to a lack of resources, Radio-Canada reports.

Radio-Canada revealed last week that ELTA, three months since it was founded, has only 12 full-time police officers .

The situation had been denounced by the president of the police brotherhood, Yves Francoeur, who says the squad does not have the means to reach its goal.