Towing industry reform needed to wipe out organized crime, Montreal's city watchdog says

It often starts with a vaguely menacing phone call, meant to deter newcomers from doing business in a certain area of the city.

Then come the violent threats, trucks set alight, garages vandalized and even people beaten up, in some cases.

Those are the kinds of stories MontrealInspector General Denis Gallant heard while conducting an investigation into the city's towing industry, which he likened to the wild west.

The best way to deter organized crime from infiltrating the industry, he said, is to implement a controlled system across the 19 boroughs.

"We'll have more regulations, and organized crime will say, 'I don't want to go in that business anymore because there's no value for us,'" he said.

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Gallant got more than 100 tow-truck operators to confide in him aboutthe violence and intimidation they encounter daily from the Hells Angels,the Mafia and street gangs.

He said he heard abouttow-truck business owners compelledto pay protection moneyto organized crimeor threatened when they triedto tow cars in areas run by other companies.

"Honest people don't want to continue business in Montreal because they're scared," he said.

Gallant blames the situation on the fact that the towing business is a "lucrative"one, and boroughs no longer designate a specific company for police and firefighters to call when there's an accident or a driver's car is seized.

Under the old contracts, tow-truck operators would get a fixed price of around $100 for a towing job,but in the absence of those contracts,the cost of towing has skyrocketed.

Gallant said he spoke to someone who paid $400 to have his car towed four kilometres.

"Organized crime [is] there for only one thing make money, and good money," he said.

Gallant wants the city to return to that controlled system, which would include mandatory background checks and impose a set price on towing jobs.

Mayor DenisCoderresays before the citycan harmonize the regulations, it needs the province to pass a decree, something he doesn't expect to take long.