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. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt