It was summer vacation, and a group of boys was playing in front of the Saint-Nom-de-Jésus school in Montreal’s east-end neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

At 12:40 p.m. on Aug. 9, 1995, a man got into his Jeep parked across the tree-lined street from the school.

A powerful explosion sent the Jeep flying into the air. The blast was so violent it shattered nearby windows. Pieces of metal flew everywhere.

One of the pieces of metal struck one of the boys playing on the street, 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers. Desrochers, who was supposed to start Grade 6 in a few days, was hit in the head and died four days later in a hospital.

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Australian biker gangs increasingly involved in the international drug trade business using Thailand as a base to supply drugs to Australia and worldwide

The bombing was tied to the biker war that had rocked Montreal for the previous year. Police said Desrochers was the first innocent victim of that war.

The Hells Angels, under the leadership of Maurice (Mom) Boucher, had taken on a group of criminal gangs called the Alliance. Boucher wanted total control of drug-trafficking turfs in Montreal.

By the time the war ended in 2002, more than 165 people had been killed. Two prison guards were killed. Police officers were being followed, their squad cars set on fire. Several innocent people, like Desrochers, were also killed.

This week’s episode of our new podcast, The Dark North: Gangs of Montreal, looks at how the war got started, the people who died, and the legacy the brutal war left in Quebec and Canada.

The Dark North: Gangs of Montreal is hosted by Paul Cherry, the Montreal Gazette’s crime reporter. You can subscribe to The Dark North on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your