Four Guns, Two of Them Semi-Automatic, Out of Three Apartments in Hull: Gatineau Police Search One Unit on Rue Gamelin and Two on Rue Thomas-Kelly, and Three Men Are in Custody With No Charges Yet Filed (Reported August 20, 2026)
This file was first reported on Thursday, August 20, 2026, and covers searches carried out early the previous morning — it is not a story that broke today. On August 19 the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau went through three residential addresses in the Hull sector at once and came out with four firearms, two of them semi-automatic, on top of the drugs. Three Gatineau men were arrested. None of them has been named, because as of the reporting no charges had yet been filed.
The SPVG says the operation followed an investigation, and that the investigation was helped along by information from the public. The searches went in early in the morning of Wednesday, August 19, 2026 — one at an apartment on rue Gamelin, and two at apartments on rue Thomas-Kelly.
Three men from Gatineau, aged 41, 42 and 48, were arrested.
What Came Out of the Three Units
The inventory published by the force is unusually mixed. It is not a single-commodity haul. Alongside the cocaine there is cannabis, there are pills, there are steroids, there is contraband tobacco, and there is jewellery — and there are guns.
Four firearms is the number that separates this from a routine street-level warrant. Two of the four are described as semi-automatic weapons. The force has not said whether any of them was loaded, whether any was restricted or prohibited, where in the three units they were found, or whether any is traceable.
The Seizure, as the SPVG Published It
- More than 200 grams of cocaine
- Several tablets, some of them methamphetamine
- More than 500 grams of illicit cannabis
- Roughly twenty vials of steroids
- Four firearms, two of them semi-automatic weapons
- 200 unstamped cigarettes
- About $1,000 in Canadian currency, along with material used to facilitate drug trafficking
- Several pieces of valuable jewellery
Why Nobody Has Been Named
The three arrested men are identified in the public account only by age and by city of residence. That is deliberate: the SPVG states that charges could be laid with the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, the wording used in Quebec when a police force has made arrests but the prosecution service has not yet authorised a charge sheet.
Until the DPCP acts, there is no accused, no docket, no court date and no name. The investigation, the force says, continues.
How the Hull Warrants Ran
The Line the Force Draws Around Firearms
The SPVG release closes with the two tip lines it now attaches to any file involving guns: its own Info line for drug information, and the confidential CENTAURE line run at the provincial level.
CENTAURE is Quebec’s standing strategy against illegal firearms, and its stated mandate is to keep constant pressure on organized crime across the supply, importation, distribution and possession of illegal guns. The organizations that strategy exists to squeeze range from the province’s outlaw motorcycle structures — see our file on the Hells Angels in Canada — to the street organizations documented in our Montreal street gangs file. Nothing in the SPVG account attaches any of them to these three men. No criminal organization has been named in this file, and none is asserted here.
Where This File Stands
Verified. The date and timing of the searches; the three addresses and the two street names; the Hull sector; the three arrests and the ages and home city of the men; the full seizure inventory including the four firearms and the two semi-automatic weapons; that charges could be laid with the DPCP; and that the investigation continues. Source opened and read in full.
Missing. The names of the three men. The specific charges under consideration. Whether any of the four firearms was loaded, restricted or prohibited. Which of the three units the guns came out of. The street value the force places on the cocaine and cannabis. Whether the three men are alleged to have been working together. Whether any of them was already bound by a firearms prohibition or a release order. Whether any of the three has since been released or held.
Not claimed. That any criminal organization, street group or outlaw motorcycle club is behind this. Police have named none, and this file does not supply one. The reference to CENTAURE above is to the provincial strategy under which the tip line operates, not an allegation about these arrests.
Update trigger. Any filing by the DPCP, which would produce names and a charge sheet. Any statement on the provenance or status of the four firearms. Any linkage announced between the three addresses and a wider network.
Primary Sources
- TVA Gatineau, Camille Turgeon: « Importante perquisition en matière de stupéfiants dans le secteur Hull » — published 20 August 2026. Opened and read in full. Sole source for the August 19 timing, the rue Gamelin and rue Thomas-Kelly addresses, the three arrests and the ages of the men, the complete seizure inventory, the DPCP wording and the two tip lines. Photograph credited to the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau.
- Le Droit: « Trois arrestations lors de frappes antidrogue à Gatineau » — published 20 August 2026. Second outlet carrying the same operation on the same day.
- Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau communiqués index — checked at the time of filing. No standalone release on this operation had been posted to the force’s own communiqués page. The account above rests on the reporting cited.
