B.C. looking to seize millions in properties of alleged criminals

B.C.'s director of civil forfeiture is going after five properties connected to an international crackdown on crime groups linked to India.

B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture is going after five properties connected to an international crackdown on crime groups linked to India. Court documents show they’ve frozen the assets of alleged drug trafficking boss Ravinder Singh Dhanda, including a $3.6 million house in White Rock and a $2.6 million house in South Surrey. Three properties linked to Garinder Singh Deo are also facing seizure.

That includes his $5.5 million residence in West Vancouver, a $2.6 million property in Surrey and a nearly $3 million house in Surrey. “Civil forfeiture is a process widely used in British Columbia to target the assets of organized crime and others who are involved in criminality,” Peter German, a lawyer and the former Deputy Commissioner for the RCMP, said. Get breaking National news “It is a civil process.”

Dhanda was recently arrested in Operation Hard Ball, a major crackdown by law enforcement in the United States, Canada and Europe connected with three India-based transnational organized crime groups. Deo was also among the 37 defendants targeted by the US Department of Justice. “Organized crime often work through numbered companies, nominees, so there could well be someone who comes up and says, ‘No, this is my mansion, I bought it,’ but that will take time to sort out,” Jeffrey Simser, Canada’s first director of civil forfeiture, told Global News.

With Dhanda and Deo in custody, any vacant properties will be managed by a team to preserve their value. “As soon as the property has been restrained or seized by the government, it’s the government’s responsibility to maintain that property in as good a condition as possible,” German said. If the houses are eventually sold, funds will support crime prevention and community safety grants.

Over the past 20 years, B.C.’s Director of Civil Forfeiture has seized assets totalling more than $221 million.