Pubdate: Sat, 07 Mar 2015
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2015 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Barb Pacholik
Page: A1

PROVINCE'S HOT PURSUIT OF COLD CASH

The story was told by the brown sugar-like substance spilled on the
nightstand, the straws that lay on top, and the hotel key card with
traces of the same crushed crystals along its edges.

Silent was the corpse lying nearby.

Inside that nightstand was $1,200 cash, mostly bound by a rubber band.
Another $3,750 lay loose in the top drawer of the television stand.

The rest - $21,980 - was bundled in a vacuum-sealed bag. An iPhone lay
under the body, and a Samsung phone was on the floor.

The search of the Saskatoon hotel room - a suspected temporary "stash
house" to cut up drugs and avoid a robbery by competitors - also
turned up enough ecstasy, resembling sugar, to satisfy a heavy user
for 255 days, 16 pounds of marijuana, a variety of small plastic bags,
and a vacuum sealer. The room was guarded by one very large dog.

There is little question the $26,930 police found there almost two
years ago came from a crime.

Today, it's in the coffers of the Saskatchewan government's growing
Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund, proceeds of "unlawful activity"
collected under the almost six-year-old Seizure of Criminal Property
Act. The fund is currently at $2.3 million, built from 94 forfeiture
orders, to the end of February, for $1,796,652 in cash, 29 vehicles
that were sold off, and two buildings - a $249,000 Regina
bungalow-turned-grow-op that netted the province $18,000 after it was
sold and the mortgage paid, and a store owner's Regina warehouse,
which netted $600,000.

Most of the fund comes from suspected drug money, although no offence
is immune. The smallest cash forfeiture was $225 found in a wallet,
the largest $407,750 volunteered by a confessed longtime pot dealer.

Proof of a crime isn't actually necessary, but the government's
lawyers do have to prove the assets are likely the proceeds or an
instrument of "unlawful activity." So how do they do that? Sometimes
it's obvious, like the money in that hotel room. But other times, all
police have is a suspicious looking cache of cash in an unusual spot -
and no good explanation.

In applying for forfeiture, the Crown typically files affidavits from
police experts who set out why it's probably tainted money. For
example, a B.C. man stopped by RCMP near Swift Current last year had
$38,000 stuffed in two woollen socks and a knitted slipper - 92 per
cent of it in $20 bills. Normally about 43 per cent of bills in
circulation in Canada are $20s, says the expert.

A police dog also alerted its handler to the odour of illicit drugs,
and ion tests, which measure traces of drugs, revealed the presence of
cocaine on the cash. (An American study five years ago did find 85 to
90 per cent of U.S. and Canadian bills have cocaine residue on them.)

How the money is bundled also becomes evidence. For example, stacks of
$1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 are common "in the drug trafficking world,"
notes one affidavit, or some cash is in an "Asian style" - associated
with Asian drug gangs - bundles of $20s totalling $1,000 with the
final bill wrapped around the stack.

Plus, as the expert's affidavit notes, criminals prefer boxes and
socks to banks because: "It is common knowledge in the drug
trafficking community that financial institutions must report
transactions of $10,000 or more to authorities."

Sgt. Todd Wall is a Regina Police Service officer who heads the Regina
Integrated Drug Unit's (RIDU) street enforcement team. Regina police
or the RIDU - which includes RCMP members - have been behind 54 per
cent of the successful forfeiture orders, the highest percentage among
policing agencies. The RIDU has bragging rights to the biggest total
forfeiture to date, $652,016 in property and cash from a Regina store
owner.

Wall says police seize "offence-related property" then send the file
over to the Justice Ministry, where lawyers decide to seek forfeiture
or not.

He credits a strong economy for all that found money - people have
disposable income and drug dealers know it.

One man in the town of Strasbourg forfeited $30,575, most of which was
spread out on his kitchen table with a smorgasbord of drugs, a digital
scale and Baggies. He had a Vancouver supplier and about 50 regular,
local customers.

Almost half of the province's forfeiture orders were for assets in
excess of $10,000. Six of them were above $75,000.

"It's unfortunate that crime is that lucrative ... to have that much
money turned over on a fairly consistent basis in itself isn't the
best thing," says Wall.

"At least (we) have an avenue ... to forfeit that money and give it
back to where good can be done with it - that's a good thing," he adds.

Sort of like money laundering - but legally - that dirty money goes
into the Forfeiture Fund and comes out clean, paying for the
administrative expenses of civil forfeiture, and for police
investigations and victims programs.

Civil forfeiture has come under fire south of the border for
questionable seizures and equally dubious spending - such as a Texas
police department that used it like a slush fund, buying a margarita
machine for office parties.

Regina police Chief Troy Hagen says there's no comparison.

"There's a large distinction between other models that are out there
. It's not like we're engaged in our duties to support or prop up
our budget," he says.

No police agency that makes a seizure is guaranteed money from the
fund, administered by the provincial government. "So it never enters
our mind when we're ... seizing items that there's any benefit for us
necessarily at all," adds Hagen.

The Regina Police Service has been the only police agency to get
forfeiture money, receiving $100,000 a year ago for its investigation
into an unsolved triple homicide. As set out in the act, an equal
amount went to the province's Victims' Fund.

Hagen can't pinpoint specifically how the money was spent, but says it
helped in what has become one of the city's largest criminal
investigations. "It's not for Tasers or for equipment," he says. "That
fund is set up for very complex and unusual investigations that are
burdening a specific police service."

Dan Poole, director of the civil forfeiture program, says the payouts
to police are for "operational expenses." Work on an application
setting out the criteria is underway, but "they do have to identify a
specific project," he adds.

Poole says there's only been one payout to allow time for the fund to
build.

"There is a learning curve with a program like this, and we wanted to
ensure that there was sustainable funds before making large
disbursements ... It took five years to get it to $1.3 million," he
says. It grew by another $1 million in the past year.

"With better communication with Saskatchewan police agencies, it will
result in a better understanding of the civil forfeiture process,"
Poole says. He anticipates more applications and payouts.

Regina lawyer Barry Nychuk, who has represented clients fighting
forfeiture, isn't convinced the ends justify the means.

"We have deprived everyone of a lot of their rights, a lot of their
civil rights. We have subjected them to reversing the onus and making
you prove that this is not proceeds of crime. We've gone through this
. for a measly $2.3 million," he charges.

"Are we really deterring crime?" Nychuk asks, noting that is the
government's rationale for the law.

Some people have been subject to forfeiture orders more than once. One
Regina woman was busted three times over a four month span, losing a
total of $48,000.

Some were caught while on bail or are repeat offenders. Others are
first-timers, like a prison employee ordered to forfeit her car after
she tried to smuggle in drugs to inmates.

Wall admits deterrence is tough to measure.

"Some of them probably learn their lesson and that's the end of it,"
he says. "But then other ones just see it as the cost of doing
business, and they'll carry on."

And that gamble might pay off - for the forfeiture fund.
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MAP posted-by: Matt