Man connected to 2013 Quebec helicopter jailbreak given 15-year-sentence

MONTREAL – A man who pleaded guilty to being an accomplice in a spectacular 2013 helicopter jailbreak in Quebec was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday.

Mathieu Steven Marchisio pleaded guilty to several charges in connection with the daring getaway after a helicopter pilot was forced at gunpoint to fly to a prison in Saint-Jerome in March 2013.

The charges include seizing an aircraft, possessing a firearm and breaking and entering

Two convicts, Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Danny Provencal, climbed a rope ladder into the hovering chopper and fled.

The two escapees and the two men accused of hijacking the helicopter were picked up by police in Mont-Tremblant, about 85 kilometres away, within a few hours of the escape.

A year after that breakout, three accused drug traffickers also broke out of jail using a helicopter.

Yves Denis, Denis Lefebvre and Serge Pomerleau escaped detention near Quebec City after a chopper landed in the prison yard.

The three were nabbed about three weeks later hiding in a luxury condominium in Montreal.