$300K home seized in Red Deer drug case will be sold to benefit victims of crime

A $300,000 Red Deer home seized by RCMP in a 2015 drug investigation will now be sold, with most of the proceeds going to a fund that supports victims of crime.

The civil forfeiture application for the house, plus about $14,000 cash, was granted by a judge Friday in a Red Deer court.

"We're happy that we had a positive result on it," RCMP Const. William Lewadniuk said Tuesday.

"When other drug dealers see stuff like that it's also a deterrent to see that we do have the ability to take away the profits that they generate from drug transactions," said Lewadniuk, a financial crimes investigator.

• $80K in suspected crime proceeds seized at Calgary airport
• Alberta law allows courts to seize, auction property used in crime

The civil forfeiture application, made in 2016, stemmed from a June 2015 search warrant that netted 10,000 prescription pills and saw a Red Deer man charged with drug trafficking and, later, with money laundering.

The man is currently in custody on the trafficking charges, while the money laundering charges are still before the courts, police said.

All proceeds from the sale of the home will go into the civil asset forfeiture fund and be channelled to victims of crime, with the exception of $7,500 that will reimburse an interim owner for renovations done on the house, said police. 

In Alberta, proceeds seized under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Program cannot be sold until the courts make a final ruling about whether the proceeds should be returned or disposed of.