Quebec provincial police (SQ) have arrested three people in connection with a lab allegedly used to make fake IDs and credit cards in Montreal, stealing thousands of identities in the process.
Provincial police say 2,400 identities were stolen to create the fake documents. Authorities have sent letters to 1,900 people, alerting them to the theft.
Evens Emile, 42, and Ralph-Isai Labady, 34, were arrested in Repentigny and Laval on Tuesday. Later in the day, police confirmed that a third man, 27, was arrested in Montreal.
Nearly 1,000 forged documents and what police described as “sophisticated equipment” used to manufacture counterfeits, such as driver’s licences, Canadian residence cards, health insurance (RAMQ) cards, debit and credit cards, and social insurance cards, were seized, according to an SQ news release.
“The seized counterfeit documents were of high quality, making them particularly difficult to detect without the use of specialized equipment,” police said.
All three suspects are expected to appear via videoconference at the Joliette courthouse. They face charges including producing false documents (IDs and credit cards) and “possessing identifying information about other individuals,” the SQ said.
The arrests come after a March 21, 2025, raid on Chabanel Street in Montreal. At the time, police seized equipment including embossing machines, punching machines, a laser engraver, specialized printers and a laminating machine. They also found boxes of blank cards and holograms.
Police say the fake identities were sold for $250 to $300 each, usually within 24 to 48 hours.
The SQ collaborated with the forensic science and medicine lab for the investigation that began in February of last year, adding that the main suspect in the case had been operating since 2019.
With files from Sidhartha Banerjee of The Canadian Press
