DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOUR HOME? DON'T USE IT AS CRIME CENTRAL

Kamloops Mounties were no doubt pleased to hear about the sentence handed
down last week to a prolific offender in exchange for guilty pleas to five
drug-trafficking charges.

In addition to a fairly standard 14-month jail term, [name redacted], as
part of his plea agreement, agreed to forfeit his Brocklehurst house to the
Crown.

The 52-year-old owned the home free and clear, having inherited it a few
years ago after the death of his father.

The house, at [address redacted], had recently been assessed at $277,000.

After the sentence was handed down on Wednesday, my curiosity - and the
fact I had to go to the airport - took me on a brief drive down Nicolani.

It's a nice street.

All the houses, [name redacted] former pad included, appear pretty well-kept.

But a quick drive-by glance at the abode does little to tell the story of
what was going on behind its walls when Mounties last summer began a
month-long investigation into [name redacted] activities. It was, as B.C.
Supreme Court Justice Richard Blair said in delivering his sentence, "a
crack house."

And, driving down the street last week and imagining a steady flow of
undesirables coming and going at all hours, it was surely a thorn amongst
roses.

The investigation itself came after a number of complaints from neighbours,
though we can be sure cops had [name redacted] in their crosshairs long
before he even inherited the house.

Nicolani Drive's law-abiding citizens were no doubt glad to hear their
former neighbour - who has been in custody since his arrest last October -
wouldn't be moving back into the neighbourhood. And they should be.

Think how happy you would be if you saw a "for sale" sign next to the
rusted-out pickup truck on the lawn of that party house on your block.

Then multiply that feeling by 10,000.

Crack shacks should be forfeited to the Crown more often when their owner
is convicted of crimes in which their house is intrinsically linked to
their legal undoing.

Nobody thinks twice when judges order the destruction of property - be it a
crack pipe or a crow bar or a gun - used in a crime.

[name redacted] house, according to the Crown, was essentially one big crime.

Police said the house was littered with addicts, dope and paraphernalia.

[name redacted] was dealing cocaine out of the home, at one point telling
undercover cops he was making about $400 a day in profit.

He didn't work to earn the house.

He was lucky to have had parents who thought enough of him to leave it in
his name.

And what did he do to thank them?

Turned it into a crack shack.

When Mounties swooped in on five alleged Independent Soldiers a few months
back, they seized three vehicles, claiming the wheels had been used in the
commission of crimes.

If the so-called gangsters are eventually convicted on the drug charges
they are now facing, those cars should never be returned.

The only real loser in [name redacted] having to fork over his house -
other than the drug dealer himself - is his nephew, who was slated to
inherit the property when his uncle passed away.

Although I'm sure that, in the back of his mind, that nephew knows his
uncle got what he deserved.

Don't expect to see a wave of crack houses being forfeited to the Crown,
though - not many of the [name redacted]-esque drug-addicted dealers who
pass through the Kamloops Law Courts seem to own property.