SWAT team captures 3 Quebec helicopter prison escapees

MONTREAL – The three men who escaped from a Quebec City-area prison by helicopter two weeks ago were captured Sunday morning in a Montreal residence.

Quebec provincial police say investigators, accompanied by SWAT team members, arrested the fugitives at around 1:30 a.m.

Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau says further arrests in the case are likely.

"It could be a person who helped them escape from prison or person who helped them hide from us," Bilodeau said.

"The investigation continues."

Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49, are due in court in Quebec City on Monday.

Police did not divulge further details about how they finally found the fugitives, but a police operation took place Sunday morning at the site of a condominium building in Old Montreal.

The three men had been arrested under Operation Crayfish in 2010, which had dismantled a network of drug traffickers.

They were awaiting trial on charges that included gangsterism and murder when a helicopter plucked them from a courtyard of the Orsainville Detention Centre in suburban Quebec City on June 7.

The three men were added to an Interpol red notice list, which placed them among the world's most wanted fugitives.

Shortly after the daring breakout it was revealed that a judge had granted the inmates looser restrictions the day before they escaped, including the possibility they no longer be obliged to wear handcuffs.

Deputy Premier Lise Theriault has said she doesn't know why the judge agreed to the request.

The Quebec government has ordered an internal investigation into the jailbreak.

The administrative probe will also examine a similar escape last year.

In March 2013, two inmates grabbed onto a rope dropped from a helicopter at the St-Jerome detention centre and flew away. But they were quickly recaptured.