Patrick Champoux
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Patrick Champoux (born 1966), better known as "Big Pat", is a Canadian gangster and outlaw biker.
Champoux arrived in St. John's from Montreal in 2004.[1] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote: "Big Pat kept his intimidating presence large. He'd enter bars and help himself to beer, daring the owners to stop him...According to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and a CBC documentary on the situation, he did everything short of renting a billboard to advertise the fact that he was the town's dominant drug dealer".[2] Champoux established himself as the most powerful gangster in St. John's, being involved in a number of assaults and smashing up bars that refused to pay him extortion money.[2]
Together with his girlfriend, Sonia Delisle, Champoux owned and operated Bubbles Gentleman Club on George Street, a strip-club that was notorious for the rowdy elements it attracted.[2] The club was charged with violating the Criminal Code's outlawing of "immoral theatrical performance" after one stripper from Montreal, Marie-Andrée Lauriault, allowed 177 men to penetrate her vagina with a dido she handed out.[2] One man at Bubbles accused of being a police officer was beaten and thrown out from the second floor, an incident that left him paralyzed.[3] The amount of cocaine being sold in St. John's and Newfoundland in general increased along with a rise in petty crime after Champoux's arrival.[2] Sergeant Marlene Jesso of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary told the media: "Another big thing in the city right now is home invasions and that's drug dealers ripping off other drug dealers for money and drugs".[2] Champoux eventually returned to Montreal, but left behind another Hells Angel, Patrick "Little Pat" Dickson to manage his operations in St. John's.[2]
Champoux and Dickson recruited two local criminals, John Stanley and Mark Kane, to assist with their operations.[4] The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary set up a secret video camera in Stanley's house where he kept an average of $10, 000-$20, 000 in cash at anytime.[5] Stanley also kept money in safehouses in Portugal Cove, Mount Pearl and in other apartments he rented in St. John's.[5] The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary found in Stanley's apartment a kilogram of cocaine that had been purchased in Montreal two days before.[5]