B.C. government wants to keep $120,000 found in dead trafficker’s Coal Harbour condo

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The B.C. authorities desires to maintain $120,000 despatched to a Vancouver trafficker the day earlier than he was discovered useless of an overdose in his Coal Harbour rental final yr.

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Ezra Beau Sametz had been “engaged in trafficking managed medication and substances and related to organized crime,” in line with a press release of declare filed just lately by the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Workplace.

Final Aug. 16, the concierge at Sametz’s high-rise constructing at 1077 West Cordova St. in Vancouver obtained a package deal addressed to his suite on the thirty first flooring.

The following day, the 37-year-old died inside the luxurious one-bedroom unit, presently assessed as being price $1.35 million.

On Aug. 19, the concierge referred to as Vancouver police after seeing “a managed substance within the residence.”

The concierge turned a package deal full of money over to the officers who arrived.

“The VPD opened the package deal and positioned 18 bundles of Canadian foreign money sure with elastic bands totalling $120,000,” says the assertion of declare filed late final month in opposition to Sametz’s property.

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There was $58,000 in $50 payments, $61,940 in $20 payments, and 6 $10 payments. Police discovered one other $445.40 throughout a search of the residence.

Additionally they discovered greater than half a kilogram of cocaine, 220 grams of magic mushrooms, 759 grams of heroin, 739 grams of methamphetamine, an industrial capsule press, two cash counters, a vacuum-seal machine, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and ammunition, a machete, a stiletto knife, and a can of bear spray.

“The cash was present in proximity to a managed substance and bundled or packaged in a fashion not in step with customary banking practices,” the director of civil forfeiture’s declare mentioned. “On Aug. 24, 2021, samples of the cash have been subjected to ion mobility spectrometry testing, and examined constructive for cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin.”

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The cash must be forfeited as “proceeds and an instrument of illegal exercise,” the lawsuit mentioned. “The cash has been utilized by the deceased to have interaction in illegal actions.”

The director alleges Sametz was concerned in possession for the aim of trafficking and trafficking managed substances, possession of the proceeds of crime, laundering the proceeds of illegal exercise, possession of an unauthorized firearm, and failure to declare taxable revenue.

No assertion of defence has been filed.

Sametz had a protracted historical past with police, with convictions courting again 20 years that included possession of managed substances, possession of stolen bank cards, possession of a weapon for a harmful function, felony harassment, aggravated assault, and theft.

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In 2019, a B.C. Supreme Courtroom decide ordered him to forfeit just below $5,000 to the federal government after the money was seized by Vancouver police throughout a site visitors cease wherein packaged medication have been additionally discovered.

The lawsuit isn’t the primary time the director of civil forfeiture has gone after the belongings of a useless felony.

Final yr, the company filed a go well with in opposition to the property of alleged drug supplier Adil Shafiq Janmohamed, requesting the forfeiture of $400,000 seized throughout a police raid of a Coquitlam home two years earlier. And the director of civil forfeiture additionally filed a 2021 declare to maintain virtually $17,000 police discovered within the Shangri-La rental of Crimson Scorpion gangster Dinu Alexandru Tanasescu after he died of an overdose the earlier summer season. In 2019, the director sued the property of Scorpion gangster Justin Haevischer to maintain money and costly jewellery seized throughout a Vancouver police search in July 2018. Haevischer was shot to demise exterior a crowded Aldergrove McDonald’s on Sept. 10, 2019.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/kbolan

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