Major cocaine trafficker sentenced to eight-year prison term

The cocaine trafficking charges filed against Alkhalil in Longueuil stemmed from Project Loquace, an investigation led by the Sûreté du Québec. When arrests were made in 2012, the SQ alleged that six men had formed a consortium to take control of cocaine distribution in Quebec. Alkhalil was alleged to be among the six leaders as was Shane Kenneth (Wheels) Maloney, 42, a leader in Montreal’s West End Gang. Maloney pleaded guilty to charges related to Project Loquace in 2017. He was left with a five-year prison term to serve and was granted day parole on Dec. 18 last year. On Aug. 13, the Parole Board of Canada extended Maloney’s period of day parole for another three months.

Project Loquace began after a man who was working for Quebec City resident Frédéric Lavoie as a runner decided to become an informant for the Sûreté du Québec. Lavoie depended on the informant for all aspects of the kilograms of cocaine he was distributing from an apartment in Griffintown, including storage, sales and accounting. While they worked together, Lavoie told the informant who his partners were, including a man nicknamed Honda, who turned out to be Alkhalil. During the probe, an informant passed on photos of the text messages he received from Lavoie and their conversations were secretly recorded.

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