The prison yard of the Orsainville Detention Centre near Quebec City is shown on Saturday June 7, 2014. Quebec Provincial Police said three inmates escaped from the Orsainville Detention Centre using a helicopter.FRANCIS VACHON/The Canadian Press
The three men who spectacularly broke out of a Quebec jail by helicopter last June were sentenced Friday to between 16 and 22 years in prison on drug charges.
Serge Pomerleau, Denis Lefebvre and Yves Denis were found guilty in October of conspiracy, gangsterism and drug trafficking.
On those charges, Pomerleau, Lefebvre and Denis were given prison terms of 22, 20 and 16 years respectively.
Before being sentenced, the three pleaded guilty to breaking out of jail and, as a consequence, Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne added an extra year to their sentences.
Pomerleau and Lefebvre were also ordered to pay $3.2 million and $1.3 million respectively within five years, or face more years in prison.
The three men ran a drug-trafficking cell in northwestern Quebec from 2007 to 2010. Police allege the trio sold more than 640 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $64 million.