Claude Savoie (policeman)
Joseph Philippe Claude Savoie (1943 – 21 December 1992) was a Canadian career policeman and senior anti-drug officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), while simultaneously a co-conspirator with the West End Gang of Montreal and its leader Allan "The Weasel" Ross. Savoie committed suicide in his office at the RCMP headquarters in Ottawa after his links to organized crime were exposed by investigative journalists from The Fifth Estate television program. The exposure of Savoie shattered the Canadian people's image of the Mounties as an incorruptible police force and was described by the Canadian scholar Steven Schneider as "the biggest case of police corruption in Canada for years". Police career Savoie was born in Montreal and joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1965. The French-Canadian Savoie worked as the RCMP's liaison officer at the Canadian embassy in Paris until 1986. In 1986, he had become one of the most senior officers working in the RCMP's anti-drug squad in Montreal. Upon his return to Montreal, Savoie experienced financial problems. In 1987, reflecting the new policy of glasnost ("openness") in the Soviet Union, Savoie took part in a joint Soviet-Canadian investigation of a drug trafficking ring concerning the vory v zakone ("thieves in law", i.e., Russian organized crime). Savoie twice visited Moscow to hold discussions with Soviet Militsiya officers. The investigation ended with a large shipment of hashish, that had arrived from Odessa aboard a Soviet freighter, being seized by the RCMP at the Port of Montreal. Corrupt policeman Through his work, Savoie came to know a prominent Montreal lawyer, Sidney Leithman, who usually defended gangsters. Although it was a major breach of ethics on the part of both men, Leithman and Savoie started to trade information, with Leithman informing on his own clients, while Savoie told Leithman much about what the RCMP knew about Montreal gangsters. The trading of information came to cause tensions between American and Canadian law enforcement as the Americans complained that whatever information they shared with the Canadians always seemed to reach Montreal organized crime. When Savoie was promoted to be the chief of the RCMP's Montreal Drug Section in January 1989, there were concerns by other Mounties about his relationship with Leithman. A secret RCMP report from 1993 states: "From that moment on, his meetings with Sidney Leithman became more frequent. It was not unusual to see Leithman meeting with Inspector Savoie inside his Montreal Drug Section office. On at least one occasion, such a meeting took place behind closed doors and lasted more than a half an hour. When his clients were arrested, Leithman arrived quickly at the office of Inspector Savoie. On a few occasions during (a) trial of Colombian drug traffickers, Inspector Savoie made impromptu visits to the courtroom". Later in 1989, at a meeting in Leithman's office, Savoie was introduced to West End Gang leader Allan "The Weasel" Ross, where it was agreed that Savoie would work for Ross, selling information in exchange for a regular salary of $200,000.