PROPERTY SEIZURE HELPS COPS BATTLE ORGANIZED CRIME

Police share latest criminal trends surrounding proceeds of crime at
Nanaimo symposium

Police work to target and dismantle organized crime groups in part by
seizing property related to offences or proceeds of crime.

In Nanaimo, a north-end home built and used for growing marijuana
became the first on Vancouver Island and fifth in B.C. to be seized by
the Crown in 2005.

The province can also use the controversial Civil Forfeiture Act to
seize property believed to have been acquired with crime money or used
for crime.

The notorious Nanaimo Hells Angels clubhouse remains in legal limbo
after the province used the act to seize the building in 2007.

Police shared the latest criminal trends surrounding proceeds of crime
at a Saturday session of a Nanaimo symposium that drew Citizens on
Patrol and crime watch groups from around the province.

"Drugs and money go hand-in-hand," said RCMP Cpl. Michel Drayton.
"There's many, many different connections to organized crime from the
Lower Mainland, and B.C., to other countries."

Drayton, who spent nine of his nearly 14 years on the force in
Nanaimo, was among the officers of the more than year-long
investigation that saw the first house seized on Vancouver Island.

Drayton testified in B.C. Supreme Court about the case that saw Cuc
Van Bui and his wife, Thu Thi Tran, convicted of several drug-related
charges.

At the time police searched the Montgomery Way home, seizing 600 pot
plants, four children lived there.

Proceeds of crime investigations typically take longer, since police
must review someone's history, identify their asset pool, examine
associates and others, but the hard work can pay off.

If an asset is seized, police maintain it until the case goes to trial
but none of the money goes to the RCMP, said Drayton, unlike in the
United States where agencies who worked together share the money.

Police say offence-related properties are usually easier to prove than
ones derived from proceeds of crime, with instances including gaming
houses or cars used in dangerous driving.

A last avenue police can turn to attempt the forfeiture of seized
property is the Civil Forfeiture Act.

Enacted in the spring of 2006, the B.C. Supreme Court can order the
seizure of property believed to been acquired with crime money or used
for crime.

Police say it has resulted in a successful partnership between the
RCMP Federal Integrated Proceeds of Crime Provincial Asset Forfeiture
Unit and the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office.

"We cannot go down that avenue without exhausting all criminal
possibilities," said Drayton.

Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba have similar provisions.

Earlier this year, Bui lost his bid to overturn the forfeiture of the
family home.

A trial regarding the forfeiture of the local biker clubhouse is
slated to begin sometime next year.