A second 27-year-old suspect linked to the murder of teenager Meriem Boundaoui and 4 other accomplices have been arrested by the Montreal Police Department, after 16 months of investigation.
• Read also: [PHOTOS] Police search a wooded lot for the murder weapon
• Read also: Charged with the murder of a 15-year-old girl
“Those directly and actively involved in this murder have been apprehended,” confirmed SPVM acting director Sophie Roy.
Authorities arrested five more people this morning. One of them is directly associated with the murder of Meriem. The others will face charges ranging from assault to drug trafficking.
On Monday, Salim Touaibi, who is already imprisoned for other offences, was charged with the first degree murder of the 15-year-old, the most serious offense under the Criminal Code.
Sitting with a friend in a vehicle, Meriem was hit in the head when two hooded individuals opened fire on a group of young people in the Saint-Léonard borough, in Montreal, 16 months ago.
The Montreal police had also recalled Monday that Touaibi had not acted “alone”, but would have participated “actively” in the murder.
The investigation also showed that the young woman who arrived in Quebec for her studies two years earlier would have found herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
According to our information, it was rather the driver of the vehicle, where the victim was seated, who was in the crosshairs of the shooters.
This announcement from the SPVM comes the day after a vast search carried out by about twenty police officers under the Charles-de-Gaulle bridge, in the Pointe-aux-Trembles sector in a large wooded lot located along Gouin Boulevard East.
They were looking for the weapon that shot Meriem Boundaoui.
-With Maxime Deland, QMI Agency