Two Years and a Day for 1.35 Kilograms of Cocaine, Seven Thousand Methamphetamine Tablets and $80,891 in Cash — and He Is Out Until February: Yarrow Guay Pleads Guilty Three Weeks After Opération Insomnie Arrested Him (September 8, 2026)

Yarrow Guay was arrested on August 12, 2026 at the end of an eight-month Saguenay police investigation that produced 1.35 kilograms of cocaine, seven thousand methamphetamine tablets, $80,891 in cash and four stolen vehicles. Three weeks later he pleaded guilty to four counts. On Tuesday a Cour du Québec judge let him walk out of the courthouse, and the sentence both lawyers will ask for in February is two years and a day.

The file belongs to the Groupe d’intervention en violence urbaine of the Service de police de Saguenay. Investigators were told that cocaine and cannabis trafficking might be going on in Guay’s circle and that he might be involved in it. They opened the investigation in January 2026 and ran roughly ten surveillance sessions between January and May — near his home and at various other places he was in the habit of going.

What they watched was traffic: coming and going between the drivers of two vehicles and residences on rue Saint-François Xavier in Jonquière. Evidence was also found in a container on rue Alexis-le-Trotteur and in a unit used for storage at Lac-Kénogami. Three locations, not one, which is the difference between a personal stash and an operation with somewhere to put things.

What the Search Produced

The seizure figures as published are 1.35 kilograms of cocaine, seven thousand methamphetamine tablets, cannabis and $80,891 in cash. The cannabis figure appears twice in the source article and at two different weights — 4.5 grams in one place and 40 grams in another. Both are trivial next to the rest of the inventory, but the discrepancy is noted here rather than resolved, because there is no police release to check it against.

Officers also recovered a motocross bike, a Ford F-250, a Ford F-150 and a Jeep Cherokee. All four came from thefts, and handling them is what produced the fourth count on the charge sheet.

Free Since May, and Free Again Now

The chronology is the part of this file worth sitting with. The search happened in May. The arrest did not come until August 12. Guay was at liberty for the whole of that gap, and his lawyer used exactly that fact to argue that releasing him again now carries a risk every party can live with.

“From the moment of his arrest, my client asked that the file be settled as quickly as possible. We are doing it about three weeks after his arrest,” defence counsel Me Julien Boulianne told the court. He said his client’s willingness had spared the justice system the significant cost of a long trial. Me William Lacombe of the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales took the same line: the evidence gathered was serious, but a trial could have run several days.

Both lawyers put the guilty pleas before Judge Jean Hudon of the Cour du Québec and asked that the accused be released. “It happens in certain cases that people who have pleaded guilty can be released while they wait for the sentence to be pronounced. In this case, my client has a few small things to settle and put in order before leaving for the penitentiary,” Boulianne said.

The judge has already been told what to expect: the sentence to be suggested in February will be two years and a day in a federal penitentiary — provided, in Boulianne’s phrasing, that the accused keeps himself in line in the meantime. Two years and a day is the threshold figure. It is the shortest sentence that sends an offender to a federal penitentiary rather than a provincial jail, and it is a number that gets negotiated to rather than arrived at.

Where This File Stands

Verified. Guay’s name, his description as a man in his thirties from Jonquière, and the August 12, 2026 arrest under opération Insomnie; the four counts he pleaded guilty to; the GIVO of the Service de police de Saguenay as the investigating unit; the January 2026 start and the roughly ten surveillance sessions between January and May; rue Saint-François Xavier, the rue Alexis-le-Trotteur container and the Lac-Kénogami storage unit; the seizure figures including the $80,891; the four stolen vehicles; Judge Jean Hudon, Me Julien Boulianne and Me William Lacombe; the release pending sentence; and the February joint suggestion of two years and a day. The Le Soleil article was opened and read in full and its September 8, 2026, 6:12 p.m. timestamp confirmed on the page.

Missing. Guay’s exact age. The exact date of the May search. A file or occurrence number. The exact cannabis weight, given the two conflicting figures in the source. The street value of the cocaine and methamphetamine. Whether any weapon was recovered. Whether anyone else was arrested or charged in opération Insomnie, and what else that operation covered. Where the four stolen vehicles were taken from. Whether the cash was subject to a forfeiture application. The exact February sentencing date.

Not claimed. That Guay is connected to any criminal organization, outlaw motorcycle club or street gang. No such label appears in the reporting, and none is attributed here. The operation’s name is not a claim about who was supplying him.

Update trigger. The February sentencing hearing and whether Judge Hudon accepts the joint suggestion. Any further arrest or charge under opération Insomnie. Any Service de police de Saguenay release on the operation. Any breach of Guay’s release conditions before February.