Founded in 1967, the Mongols later "patched over" to join the South Shore chapter of the Popeyes motorcycle gang in late 1974.
At the same time that the Popeyes were feuding with the Devil's Disciples, the club was also quarrelling with the Montreal chapter of Satan's Choice, which had expanded into Quebec from Ontario in 1967.
Although the Popeyes won control of the area around Saint Henri Square, the arrest of the Dubois brothers cut them off from their largest supplier of drugs.
While president of the Popeyes, Buteau was personally courted by Sonny Barger, the leader of the Hells Angels and its most famous member, to persuade his fellow Popeye members to join the Angels.
Initially, the Hells Angels had planned to "patch over" the Devil's Disciples, but as the Popeyes had eliminated them, Barger switched over to courting Buteau.
It is believed that Buteau targeted the Devil's Disciples at least in part for that reason as he wanted his club to become the first Hells Angels' chapter in Canada.
1970
Buteau began his life of organized crime as a member of the Montreal-based Popeyes biker gang and, by the mid-1970s, he became the club's president.
The Popeyes began working as "muscle" for the Dubois Brothers in the early 1970s, initially as assassins and later on as drug dealers.
Buteau, a charismatic tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes, inspired much affection and loyalty from his fellow Popeyes, who were seen as the most violent of Quebec's 350 outlaw biker clubs.
Buteau was considered to be both a fighter and a diplomat as he was able to maintain good relations with other biker gangs such as the Missiles of Saguenay and the absurdly named Sex Fox of Chibougamau.
1974
In 1974, Buteau and the Popeyes started to fight an especially brutal biker war with the Devil's Disciples motorcycle gang, which was considered as the most powerful outlaw biker club in Montreal.
1976
By January 1976, fifteen of the Devil's Disciples had been killed by the Popeyes, causing the gang to disband.
On 14 August 1976, at the age of 25, Buteau was among the many arrested at a hotel in Saint-André-Avellin after almost fifty Popeyes had entered and trashed the place.
1977
He was instrumental in the Popeyes' merger with the Hells Angels in 1977, and played a significant role in establishing the Angels as a major criminal force in Quebec.
On 1 July 1977, a number of Satan's Choice chapters including the one in Montreal "patched over" to join the Chicago-based Outlaws, the second-largest outlaw biker club in the United States after the Hells Angels.
The Popeyes, Montreal's strongest outlaw biker club, become Canada's first Hells Angels chapter on 5 December 1977.
Barger, a legend with the Hells Angels, awarded Buteau his colours and respected him so much that he was the only Canadian authorized to use the title of "Hells Angels International."
Barger praised Buteau and the Popeyes as the most "hardcore" outlaw bikers in Canada, thereby making them the ones most worthy of becoming Hells Angels.
Buteau changed the club from a group of beer drinking brawlers to an organized criminal empire.
Throughout his time as president of the Hells Angels, Buteau was in contact with other outlaw biker gangs and aimed to persuade them to join the Hells Angels.
He aspired to have his members to appear clean-shaven, keep lower profiles, and avoid hassles.
At the time, it was normal for outlaw biker clubs to work as subcontractors for more established organized crime groups.
As president of both the Popeyes and then the Hells Angels, Buteau worked as a subcontractor for the Irish-Canadian West End Gang, who had replaced the Dubois brothers as their main supplier of drugs.
1978
In 1978, a biker war broke out between the Montreal chapters of the Hells Angels and the Outlaws.
The immediate cause of the biker war was the shooting of two Outlaws outside a Montreal bar popular with the Angels by Angels' ace assassin Yves "Apache" Trudeau on 15 February 1978, causing one death, but the more proximate cause was the desire of the Angels to expand into Ontario.
On the night of 15 February, two Outlaws entered the Brasserie Joey bar popular with the Hells Angels, which led to them being thrown out by the Angels.
The two Outlaws stood outside the Brasserie Joey, loudly cursing the Angels, when a green car appeared out of the snowy darkness.
Aboard the car was Trudeau, who opened fire on the Outlaws from behind, killing one of the Outlaws, Robert Côté, while the other one was wounded.
Buteau declared war on the Outlaws, ordering the Hells Angels to eliminate the Outlaws from Montreal.
On 21 March 1978 Trudeau assassinated Gilles Cadorette, the president of the Outlaws' Montreal chapter, via a bomb he planted in his car.
On 25 April 1978, Denis "Le Curé" Kennedy and another Hells Angel were able to enter the Outlaw clubhouse at 144 rue Saint-Ferdinand and went on a shooting rampage.
Although no-one was killed, a number of Outlaws were wounded.
On 26 April 1978, an Outlaw, Anathase "Tom Thumb" Markopoulos, was gunned down outside of a convenience store by a gunman in a green car, being killed after taking six bullets through his back.
On 27 April 1978, Kennedy shot and badly wounded an Outlaw, François Poliseno and his girlfriend, Suzanne Harvey, while the two were drinking at the Industrial Brasserie bar.
Witnesses described the gunman who shot Poliseno and Harvey as leaving in a green car, which the police found parked outside of the Angels' clubhouse.
Ballistic tests showed that the bullets fired in the Industrial Brasserie shooting were from the same handgun used in the attack at the Outlaws' clubhouse.
As a result, Buteau changed the rules, ordering that henceforward Angels were to leave their guns at the scene of the crime in order to reduce the chances of the police being able to tie together crimes.
1983
Yves "Le Boss" Buteau (1951 – 8 September 1983) was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster, known for being the first national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada.
In 1983, Buteau was murdered by a drug dealer with ties to a rival gang, the Outlaws.
Buteau was initially a member of the Mongols, a Québécois outlaw biker gang based in Drummondville with no affiliation with the American club of the same name.
