PROCEEDS OF CRIME:
Vancouver family loses bid to block home-seizure case
A south Vancouver family that police have linked to organized crime has lost the latest round in a court battle with the director of civil forfeiture over his attempt to seize their properties.
Udham Sanghera and his wife Jaspal had wanted to strike some of the allegations in the civil-forfeiture suit launched by the B.C. government two years ago.
But a master of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the changes they requested wouldn’t be made. Jaspal Sanghera appealed part of that order, but lost in court this week. That clears the way for the civil-forfeiture suit that is scheduled to go ahead at the Vancouver Law Courts next March.
The B.C. government office alleges that three properties in the 1200-block East 63rd Avenue in Vancouver were purchased with the proceeds of crime and used for the unlawful activities of the “Sanghera Crime Group” headed by Udham Sanghera.
The crime group was the target of a Vancouver police undercover investigation dubbed Project Rebellion that resulted in the arrest of Udham, his son Boby, nephews Navdip and Sav Sanghera, and others. Charges were later stayed against the patriarch, but the others were convicted on a series of firearms charges.
Earlier this year, Udham’s nephew Navdip was one of two men gunned down near East 31st Avenue and Inverness Street.
No one has been charged in the murder.
The civil-forfeiture suit says the three houses, valued at more than $4.5 million, have been used for trafficking drugs, firearms and stolen property.
Jaspal is listed as the owner of all three houses, but the suit alleges the patriarch has an interest in the properties and that they were bought with cash from “unlawful activities.”
Udham, Jaspal and Boby lived in one of the houses, which the suit alleges “is the central base from which the SGC’s drug-trafficking operation and large fencing operation for stolen property is run and directed by Udham Sanghera and Boby Sanghera.”
During searches of the properties over the years police have seized numerous boxes of pistol-calibre ammunition, two sawed-off rifle butt stocks, a loaded pistol magazine, an AK-47, ammunition and cocaine.
Udham Sanghera denies all the allegations against him and says his wife is the true owner of the properties and that he has no interest in them. In her response to the suit, Jaspal says she is the only owner of the houses and that the money used to buy them was earned legally.