The province’s civil forfeiture office is seeking to seize an Abbotsford home and two in Maple Ridge that it says are linked to drug trafficking.
A notice of civil claim filed Monday (Nov. 25) in B.C. Supreme Court states that police in February 2024 seized from the Abbotsford home almost $101,000 in Canadian currency, almost $4,400 in US funds, and prepackaged crystal meth, cocaine and fentanyl.
The documents state that the residence is located at 30553 Sparrow Drive and is owned by Guo Rui Kuang – also known as Shawn Guo Rui Kuang – and is his principal residence.
The lawsuit says that Kuang and another person – Jing Wen Liang – also own two townhouses in Maple Ridge that are located at 11272 240 St. (unit 27) and 11280 Pazarena Place (unit 1062).
The documents state that the Abbotsford Police Department began an investigation in November 2023 into a phone number suspected of being a drug-trafficking line.
An undercover officer contacted the line at various times between Nov. 7, 2023 and Jan. 20, 2024.
Kuang then met with and sold cocaine and fentanyl to the officer, the lawsuit says.
Investigators also noticed Kuang frequently coming and going from the Sparrow Drive property.
The notice of civil claim states that Kuang was arrested on Feb. 6, 2024 before meeting with the undercover officer for a large purchase of cocaine and fentanyl.
The claim says that the search warrant executed at the Sparrow Drive home turned up the cash and drugs, as well as two cellphones.
“Those phones contained text conversations between G. Kuang and others consistent with drug trafficking,” the documents state.
The notice of civil claim alleges that the three properties in question are the “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.”
“By converting the proceeds of the unlawful activity into the Sparrow Drive property, the Pazarena Place property and the 240th Street property, each of these properties was used by the defendants as instruments of unlawful activity, namely the laundering of proceeds of crime,” the lawsuit states.
The civil forfeiture office is seeking the seizure of the three properties, as well as the money that was found by police.
None of the allegations has yet been proved in court nor are there currently any related criminal charges in the provincial court database for Kuang or Liang.
If a judge decides assets must be forfeited, they can then be sold and the proceeds used by the government for victim compensation, crime prevention activities, crime remediation activities, and administration of the Civil Forfeiture Act.
ALSO SEE: Civil forfeiture lawsuit names men from Abbotsford, Surrey and Nanaimo
