Pubdate: Tue, 11 Sep 2007
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Now Newspaper
Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/forms/lettersform.html
Website: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462
Author: Maureen Gulyas
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

CRIME PROCEEDS SEIZED BY CIVIL FORFEITURE

Delta Police Among the First to Apply to Keep Goods From Being
Returned to Suspected Criminals

Returning cash and jewelry to a suspect after she beat federal drug
charges didn't sit well with two Delta police officers who had worked
the elaborate trafficking case for months.

"No way," thought Det. Bob Eden and Sgt. Harj Sidhu, who felt strongly
the return of the items would not serve the interests of justice.

This wasn't chump change either - and it was no ordinary jewelry.
Eden, the primary investigator, executed a search warrant at a bank on
No. 3 Road in Richmond and found a safety deposit box stuffed full of
cash - nearly $500,000 - as well as a two-carat diamond encrusted ring
and a gold Piaget Dancer watch.

The ring was worth an astonishing $74,000 (the bill was in the box),
while the watch came in at $13,400.

"It was so full of cash I had trouble opening the box," Eden
recalled.

Eden and his Sidhu were some of the first officers in B.C. to take
advantage of the new Civil Forfeiture Act, a provincial law that came
into effect last year. Their application was successful earlier this
summer, as the B.C. Supreme Court ordered the remaining cash and
jewelry forfeited to the province.

"The unique thing about this act is it is retroactive to 10 years.
That's how our file came into play because our file started in 2002,"
explained Sidhu, a supervisor in Delta's criminal investigation branch.

And what a file.

As Sidhu said, it started in November of 2002 when Eden, then a patrol
officer, found a marijuana grow-operation at a Tilbury Industrial Park
warehouse with an estimated street value of $500,000.

"No evidence was found directly at the scene," Eden
recalled.

Nor did he find anyone there he could link to the operation.

But that didn't deter Eden, who is now seconded to the Combined Forces
Special Enforcement Unit. Eventually the Delta detective was able to
link the warehouse to the 38-year-old woman.

 From there, the investigation snowballed to what became an elaborate
cross-border and cross-provincial drug trafficking and money
laundering operation.

Eden was able to connect the Richmond resident to a major organized
crime group in Ontario. He also came across information that connected
her to a man (believed to be her husband) in California.

Eden believes the woman was shipping about 1,600 pounds of marijuana
monthly to the U.S. in return for large quantities of cocaine imported
into Canada.

"We arrested her twice and brought her into headquarters for
questioning," Eden said.

Throughout the investigation, Eden executed 20 search warrants,
collecting a total of $724,400 in cash and luxury jewelry items, a 9
mm handgun and another $95,000 US stuffed into a kid's knapsack at her
Woodwards Road home in Richmond.

Eden also seized nearly $4 million in marijuana plants. Four grow-ops
were in Delta, while three were discovered in Richmond.

Charges were laid against other individuals in connection with some of
those grow-ops in Delta, but charges didn't stick to the Richmond woman.

"She wasn't a low level person in the food chain. She was smart enough
not to be hands-on," Sidhu explained.

In other words, she left much of the dirty work to underlings.
"Because she was so hands-off, it was hard to prove the care and
control aspect of the case," Sidhu said.

The officers could do something about the lucrative proceeds of the
criminal enterprise, thanks to the new provincial civil proceeds of
crime legislation. "Our position was she was obviously engaged in drug
trafficking and this money and jewelry was a proceed of that
activity," Sidhu said.

The officers approached the Canada Revenue Agency and were able to
secure a tax debt against her of $500,000, which included $52,000 in
unpaid GST.

That still left $73,000 in cash and another $100,000 in jewelry. "We
didn't want to give it back," Eden said.

"Obviously she got these things by unlawful means and she shouldn't
get that back," Sidhu said.

That's when the officers decided to apply to the Civil Forfeiture
Office to have the money and jewelry turned over to the province. That
was approved in July by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

While the officers are pleased to get their first forfeiture
application approved, Eden said they haven't given up on the female
suspect.

"We're aware that she's still active," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake