B.C. GOVERNMENT POCKETS MORE THAN $15 MILLION FROM ASSETS OF CRIMINALS

The B.C. government has earned more than $15 million from the assets
of gangsters and criminals since the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office
opened five years ago.

And few of those whose houses, vehicles and cash are targeted for
seizure ever challenge the forfeiture demands in court, Rob Kroeker,
the office's executive director, said Tuesday.

"We have done more than 500 files to date. We have only run one trial
in all of that time and we haven't got a decision on that. But we
have brought in more than $15 million and we haven't lost an
application yet," Kroeker said.

Kroeker said his office is still awaiting a B.C. Supreme Court ruling
in the one case that has gone to trial, involving three adjoining
properties in the 5000-block of Boundary Road owned by Sarban Singh Rai.

Vancouver police found three marijuana-growing operations in the
houses, but Rai claims in court documents that his charter rights
were breached because of "irregularities in the process used to
obtain the warrants to search."

Vancouver police announced Tuesday that a house on West 53rd Avenue
is now the most lucrative asset ever seized under the legislation.

Insp. Brad Desmarais, who heads the city's gang crime unit, said
investigators found a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in
the house in May 2009 "as part of an investigation into a network of
grow-operations throughout the city."

"This investigation is ongoing. As with many criminal enterprises of
this nature, the true owner of the property was not the person on
title," Desmarais said.

"Investigators initially conducted a criminal investigation, however,
it became apparent that criminal charges would be difficult to prove
given the convoluted nature of the beneficial ownership. Fortunately,
we knew there was another avenue available to us, and the matter was
referred to the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office for their review."

Until it was sold last fall for more than $1.3 million, the house was
owned by Yan Siang Yu, who listed her occupation as housewife on land
title documents.

Desmarais said the number of grow-operations uncovered in Vancouver
has declined from between 300-400 five years ago to just 50 last year.

And most of that decline came after B.C.'s civil forfeiture law came
into effect in April 2006.

"There is a clear relationship between removing assets from bad guys
and a reduction in certain types of crime. Our message is clear: If
you commit a crime in Vancouver and that crime has anything to do
with your car, boat or any other asset, we will take it," Desmarais said.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said civil forfeiture has become an
effective tool for law enforcement.

"Organized crime in Vancouver is extensive, often sophisticated, and
constantly adapting to avoid arrest and capture. As a police
department and a society, we have to explore every possible method
and deterrent to rid our community of this threat to public safety,"
Chu said. "Ideally, we want to arrest the operators and put them in
jail. However, in the vast majority of cases, the evidence gathered
will not support a criminal charge. But what it does support is a
very effective method to deprive the criminals of their profits and
some of their assets."

Kroeker said that in 2010, his office concluded 74 forfeiture cases
province-wide, earning a net $5.3 million for the Civil Forfeiture Office.

That included the seizure of 18 properties throughout B.C. --
including the West 53rd house -- six vehicles and 56 cash seizures.
And police referred 105 new files that are now under investigation,
Kroeker said.

"Just about any house in the Lower Mainland is going to be worth half
a million and upwards. We have done a few houses in the Interior.
They run between $100,00 and $200,000 for a property up there," he said.

"Often there will be some fairly large mortgages on these. For
example, this one [West 53rd Ave.] property, we sold for about $1.3
million and by the time we paid out the mortgage and there were
settlement terms as well, we ended up with about $650,000."

Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said the tactic of seizing assets is
"one more way we're making gang life less attractive and organized
crime unwelcome in B.C."

Some of the profits from the civil forfeiture office go back to B.C.
communities in the form of grants, something that Chu said is
particularly positive.

"Not only does this hit the criminals where it truly hurts, but the
sweet irony is that their own money can then be used to fight crime," Chu said.