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Quebec provincial police have confirmed the arrest by Mexican authorities of Maxime Paquette, who had been wanted since June 2024 in connection with investigations into the massive Desjardins data breach.
According to a statement by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the 40-year-old fugitive — one of Quebec’s most wanted — was in Cancún, Mexico, at the time of his arrest.
The SQ says Paquette will remain in custody in Mexico while extradition proceedings are initiated for his return to Canada, where he will face several charges under the Criminal Code, including:
- Fraud exceeding $5,000.
- Identity theft.
- Trafficking in identifying information.
Maxime Paquette was arrested in Cancún by Mexican authorities, according to Quebec’s provincial police. He had been wanted since 2024 in connection with the massive Desjardins data breach, which affected nearly 10 million Canadians.
According to the SQ’s website dedicated to Quebec’s most wanted fugitives, Paquette carried out various fraud schemes with Desjardins member and customer data from “illegitimately obtained lists.”
“Between June 27, 2021, and June 30, 2021, he was in possession of identifying information associated with Desjardins customers that originated from the massive data breach at Desjardins in 2019,” reads the website.
“He also sold identifying information from the stolen Desjardins lists to several individuals and on the ‘Dark Web.'”
The Desjardins data breach in June 2019 affected close to 9.7 million Canadians.
The leaked information included names, addresses, birth dates, social insurance numbers (SINs), email addresses and information about transaction habits.
The SQ states that it collaborated with Mexican authorities, Quebec’s public prosecution service, Interpol and other national and international partners in connection with this arrest.
