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 Gerald Blanchard. (Police photo) |
WINNIPEG (Sun Media) - Police raiding the homes of accused criminal mastermind Gerald Blanchard uncovered a treasure trove of sophisticated electronics, surveillance gear and high-powered weaponry, court documents reveal.
Blanchard, 35, is the alleged ringleader of an international crime group police say made millions of dollars in slick bank heists and credit card frauds. In January, police in three provinces executed search warrants at 10 homes, four of them Vancouver residences owned or "controlled" by Blanchard.
An itemized list of property seized from one of Blanchard's homes includes enough electronic gear to stock a small warehouse. Among the nearly 600 items seized are dozens of surveillance cameras, pinhole cameras, motion detectors, computer hardware and several dozen cellphones.
Police also seized a 9-mm handgun, more than 100 rounds of various ammunition, two smoke bombs, night-vision goggles, two-way radios, and several phony IDs.
Interestingly, police also found "various papers and phone numbers" for local Hells Angel Dale Sweeney. Seemingly mundane items such as an Avis car rental receipt from Cairo hint at the alleged international scope of the criminal organization.
The cache at Blanchard's other homes included more ammo, flare guns, and a "rocket propelled device." Another Vancouver home belonging to 83-year-old co-accused Carl Bales appears to have been used by Blanchard as a mail drop. Police found several dozen letters, most of them unopened, from banks and credit card companies.
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Blanchard is facing 45 criminal charges, including fraud, trafficking credit card data, break, enter and theft and committing an offence for a criminal organization. He remains in custody at Headingley Correctional Centre, in Winnipeg
Blanchard was one of eight suspects -- four of whom have connections to Winnipeg -- arrested following a nine-month Winnipeg police-led investigation dubbed "Project Kite."
Police launched the investigation after about $600,000 was stolen from the ATMs of a Winnipeg CIBC on Ellice Avenue a few days before its grand opening in May 2004.
Last month, police charged Blanchard with stealing a priceless piece of royal jewelry from an Austrian palace in 1998. The jewel, known as the Star of Empress Sisi, was recovered at a Winnipeg home sources say belonged to Blanchard's grandmother.