Dope Peddler

CANADA Dope Peddler

Depending on whether they read their news in English or French, Montrealers last week got different slants on the same story. The French-language press reported that a man named Taillefer had pleaded guilty to five charges of keeping and selling narcotics. English papers were more specific: the man was the Rev. Arthur Taillefer, curate of the Roman Catholic Church of Ste.-Madeleine d'Outremont. In the prisoner's dock at the Palais de Justice, Father Taillefer had confessed that he was a key figure in the biggest narcotics ring ever uncovered in Montreal.

With Taillefer admittedly guilty and awaiting sentence (maximum penalty: seven years on each charge), the full story of his part in Montreal's drug traffic could be told. The Mounties had known about it since last spring when a special narcotics squad, posing as dope addicts and peddlers, filtered into the city's underworld. Their hunt for higher-ups led them to Ste.-Madeleine's parish in the suburb of Outremont and to the 40-year-old curate.

One night last April, a Mountie agent called at the parish house and told the curate that he had come for some "H" (heroin). Taillefer's superior, the pastor, was ill at the time and the curate had the run of the rectory. He told his caller that he could supply up to 800 ounces of heroin at $250 an ounce.

Once the contact was made, another Mountie undercover man got to know Father Taillefer, then made a deal for six ounces of heroin. The priest directed him to Montreal's Central Station, where the heroin was stored in a locker. For three months after that, the police let Father Taillefer operate freely, keeping watch on him and his associates in Montreal's crime belt. When the Mounties pounced four weeks ago, three other Montrealers, who are still awaiting trial, were charged along with Father Taillefer. A cache of 15,000 heroin capsules ("enough to keep the city going for nearly two years") was found.

Police advised Montreal Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau of Father Taillefer's arrest. Said the Archbishop: "I want justice to take its normal course." His only request was that Defendant Taillefer not be allowed to wear a priest's garb in court. In his jail cell, Arthur Taillefer was handed an ill-fitting brown gabardine suit, took it without protest. He wore it when he went to trial.

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