CROWN CAN SEIZE ABBOTSFORD GROW-OP HOMES, COURT RULES

An Abbotsford couple is part of one of two landmark court decisions
that deal with seized residences.

The B.C. Court of Appeal made a decision Tuesday that allows the Crown
to seize homes where the owners had marijuana-growing operations.
Section 16.1 of the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act allows
for the forfeiture of homes used in drug operations such as
marijuana-growing and crystal methamphetamine labs.

The forfeiture section applies not just to owner-operators, homeowners
who grow marijuana in their own homes, but also to homeowners who
knowingly allow another person to do so on their premises.This, and
one other ruling spoken to on Tuesday, are the first by the B.C. Court
of Appeal in interpreting Section 16.1.

In the case, the court dismissed an application Khai Thoi Huynh and
Muoi Suu Ta, Cambodians who came to Canada in the late 1980s, to
appeal the forfeiture of their 4,000-square-foot Abbotsford home,
bought in 2003 for $367,000.

The couple, who have three children, pleaded guilty in January 2005 to
a charge of growing marijuana, 679 plants, and were sentenced to a
four-month conditional jail term and a firearms prohibition.