BAD GUYS LOSE BLING

Delta Police Det. Bob Eden and Sgt. Harj Sidhu seemed to have little
to show for eight months of effort.

They'd seized about $600,000 in cash and another $100,000 in jewelry
while they unraveled an elaborate pot-growing and drug-smuggling
operation between November of 2002 and the middle of 2003.

But the federal Crown prosecutor's office didn't think they had enough
of a case.

There would be no charges, no trial and as if that wasn't bad enough,
the police would have to return the money and jewelry.

Unwilling to admit defeat, officers Sidhu and Eden went to the Canada
Revenue Agency, which went after the smuggler for back taxes and won a
judgment of $500,000.

Then the officers went to the provincial Civil Forfeiture Office, the
agency that operates under new proceeds of crime laws that let
authorities seize criminal possessions.

The result was a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in July that seized $61,000
in cash and seven of the 11 pieces of jewelry.

Even though there was no trial, the office was able to convince the
court that the money and baubles were the product of criminal activity.

"That's kind of blazing new territory," Delta Police Chief Jim
Cessford says.

"The bad guys didn't get it back."

In a just-released letter to the Delta Police Board, Steven Ing, the
deputy director of the Civil Forfeiture Office in Victoria, praises
both officers for putting in extra time on the case to help the office
obtain the court order.

Ing singles out Sidhu, saying his "determination to see this matter
through was instrumental in success achieved to date."

The recovered money and jewelry has been deposited into a shared bank
account that uses proceeds of crime seizures to fund police activities
across B.C.