They requested and obtained more than 140 orders or orders, the use of at least four double agents, the installation of wiretapping microphones, the installation of well-known cameras, numerous shadowings, hours of viewing images captured by hundreds of cameras, challenges to the police, about twenty analyses. cell phones, computer and vehicle GPS of suspects; At least we can write that the Major Crimes investigators of the Montreal Police went all out to catch the killers of Meriem Boundaoui.
A 15-year-old girl, who came from Algeria to study in Quebec, was shot and killed at dinner on February 7, 2021, while she was a passenger in a stationary car at the corner of rue Jean-Talon and Valdombre. Saint-Leonard.
She was killed in a conflict between two mercantile families with whom she had nothing to do.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, PRESBYTERI
Meriem Boundaoui was sitting in this car when she was shot in the left frontal bone.
This massacre raised a wave of indignation in Quebec and the former director of the SPVM, Sylvain Caron, made it a priority.
In June 2022, a year and five months after the crime, two men, Salim Touaibi and Aymane Bouadi, were arrested and charged with the murder of the teenager and the attempted murder of four other young people who were standing near her.
It stopped after a week
Several months after the crime, Meriem Boundaoui’s relatives became impatient when they saw that the killers had not yet been arrested, but the police had long had the two men in their crosshairs, according to public court documents obtained by The Press. .
It should be noted, however, that the facts and documents alleged in these judgments and which are presented in this text have not yet been proven in court.
In the early hours of February 10, 2021, less than three days after the murder, thanks to the images captured by surveillance cameras, the police suspect’s vehicle, a white Mercedes, and screenshots were sent to 4,400 SPVM officers. The next day the vehicle was found by police officers.
The following March 7, barely a month to the day of the crime, Salim Touaibi was arrested for the murder of the teenager, but the suit was released pending further investigation.
But his cell phones were seized and their analysis opened other doors for the police.
The following month, double agents approached a member of Aymane Bouadi’s family and succeeded, apparently under a pretext that is not specified in the document, in questioning the suspect’s contacts, which also led to the investigation being advanced.
The police then identified other people with whom they shared suspicions after the murder, some of whom had helped to erase traces of the crime.
Wash the car the next day
Examining the suspects’ phones and the computer list of Mercedes and GPS, sleuths found that immediately after the murder at 6:03 am, the car drove east on the 40th street and was motionless on the boulevard Perras, where it had consumed. night.
He started the engine again at 10:29 a.m. The next morning he drove the vehicle to a car wash in the neighborhood of Rivière-des-Prairies known to the police.
The next day, on February 9, one person wrote to another through the message that “the cleaning guy” [devait] it is soon”.
Analysis of the Mercedes computer also shows that between January 15 and February 7, 2021, the vehicle was within 500 meters of Touaibi’s residence 19 days out of 20, the last at 5:20 am on February 7, 45 minutes before the crime.
A friendly traveler
In late 2021 and early 2022, observed operations and other research techniques are expected.
On February 28, investigators requested and obtained a warrant to intercept the communications of ten people.
Two months later, the mandate was renewed by seven people until June 25.
On March 18, 2022, Touaibi was arrested on another charge and remained in custody.
The police took the opportunity to send him a double agent on his legs to investigate another facet of the investigation.
The next day Bouadi and his friend flew back to Paris. On the flight home, they worshiped a very friendly female passenger sitting in the next seat.
He was an undercover agent who gleaned some information.
And did it happen? After landing, Bouadi was selected for a COVID-19 test and had to give his contact information to the authorities.
It closes in a trap
In mid-June, investigators met Aymane Bouadi for the first time for the murder of Meriem Boundaoui.
Then there is certainly a rush.
Touaibi, who was already in prison, was officially arrested for the murder of the teenager.
On June 28, the media reported that police were searching a wooded area north of Montreal, looking for clothing and weapons allegedly involved in the murder of Meriem Boundaoui.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESS ARCHIVES
Police drove through a wooded lot on Gouin Boulevard on June 28, 2012.
In his cell, Touaibi was chatting with a stranger.
“Yo! What do you mean by that? Huh did someone speak? Fortunately, as a matter we have returned to us. Do you know where they are now? They are where I put the gun and the clothes,” the officers heard him say.
The next day Aymane Bouadi was arrested in turn.
In total, the police viewed images from 100 security cameras, 37 of which captured scenes relevant to the investigation.
About forty witnesses were gathered and more than fifteen cell phones were seized and analyzed.
Since October 2022, they have requested and obtained 146 warrants, warrants, telewarranties and telephone records, when they called the beginning of the Merco investigation.
“Due to the lack of collaboration, the investigation took longer and we had to develop a much more complex and serious questioning, according to the use of resources in the service”, La Presse once committed SPVM Chief of Crime Paul Verreault. after the suspect was caught in June 2022.
According to the documents, on the 7th of February, 2011, in the afternoon, a meeting was organized between the business representatives in conflict to resolve the dispute. These ambassadors just made peace and the teenager was killed by shaking hands.
To Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ex.
