MONTREAL (AFP) - Three "extremely dangerous" prisoners who escaped in a helicopter from a jail in Canada's Quebec province earlier this month were arrested early Sunday in Montreal, police said.

The fugitives - Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49 - are accused of being the leaders of a drug trafficking network linked to the Hells Angels.

They had been due to appear in court in January 2015 on charges of premeditated murder. The three men were taken into custody at about 1:30am local time and are to go before court on Monday in Quebec City, police said on Twitter.

They escaped two weeks ago in a helicopter that landed in a courtyard at the Orsainville detention centre where they were being held. Canadian media cited police as saying others had helped them to flee, and further arrests were likely.

As well as premeditated murder, the three were also facing charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy, and other crimes.

A trial on those charges got under way on April 8. The men were arrested in 2010 as part of an operation to dismantle a drug trafficking network in Abitibi-Temiscamingue, in western Quebec.

Separately, in March 2013, two inmates were lifted on a hijacked helicopter from a prison north of Montreal. They were both quickly re-arrested, along with the two accomplices who had helped get them out.