DRUG GROWER FORFEITS HIS $327,000 HOME

First They Take The Pot, Then They Take The House.

Surrey leads the way in use of new powers to combat
grow-ops

Surrey RCMP are leading the way in the war on weed, using federal law
to seize homes used for growing marijuana.

"If you're growing pot in Surrey, we're coming for you -- and it's
going to cost you," said Surrey RCMP Cpl. Tim Shields.

The Surrey detachment just accomplished its fourth property
forfeiture, with convicted grower Huu Ro Le losing his $327,000
Chimney Heights home to the federal government.

"This is a nice house in a very prosperous subdivision," Shields said.

Over the past year, Surrey RCMP have used the federal Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act to seize two other homes and part of a warehouse,
Shields said.

"We definitely took a leading role. We are not aware of any other
successful forfeitures in the province."

The detachment has another dozen seizures going through the legal
process.

Elsewhere in the Lower Mainland and across B.C., police are taking a
close look at this new legal weapon against drug production.

"It's just a matter of time before you see these kinds of forfeitures
in the Okanagan," said Kelowna RCMP Cpl. Reg Burgess.

Coquitlam RCMP, like police in other municipalities, have started
charging policing costs to convicted pot growers, and are watching
Surrey closely.

"Somewhere down the road we would hope to have a similar system in
place," said Coquitlam RCMP Const. Jane Baptista. "Every tool helps."

It takes a lot of police work to carry the seizure process from arrest
through to forfeiture, Shields said.

"We have two officers dedicated full time to having houses restrained
by the courts and eventually seized," he said.

Recent amendments to the eight-year-old Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act made it easier for police to seize property used in
drug production, Shields said. To be subject to forfeiture, property
need only be "offence-related" -- whether drug money paid for it or
not.

When forfeited houses are sold, the money goes to Ottawa's Seized
Property Management Directorate. Surrey councillor and police
committee chairman Gary Tymoschuk is lobbying through municipal
federations for some of that money to flow directly back to
municipalities.

"There are obviously costs associated with raiding and taking down
grow-ops," Tymoschuk said. "We should have something back to offset
those expenses."

In Ontario in 2002, provincial police Sgt. Ed Hickey paid $52,500 for
a $170,000 property seized from a drug dealer. Hickey was charged
under the Police Services Act with corrupt practice.

That case highlighted the potential for abuse of the seizure
legislation, as there was no requirement for public tender of seized
property, no required public reporting on the manner of asset

disposal, no required disclosure of purchasers' identities and no
policy prohibiting police officers from buying seized goods.

Taking someone's house as punishment for marijuana growing "may
constitute an outrageously large fine," said Micheal Vonn, policy
director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"For what else do we fine along those lines? You can see the potential
scope there for an injustice."