B.C. seeks to seize cash, truck after crash

$424K alleged to be proceeds of crime

The province wants to take possession of $424,825 in cash discovered in a Surrey man’s truck after he went into medical distress and crashed into parked vehicles.

In an application filed in B.C. Supreme Court in May, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office alleges the cash is the proceeds of crime, including drug trafficking and selling illicit cannabis.

The allegations against Derek Jarrod Chevalier also include money laundering and failure to declare taxable income.

The civil forfeiture office also wants the pickup truck forfeited.

Chevalier hasn’t been charged with any crimes, according to a search of court records online.

The threshold for proving a civil forfeiture claim is lower than for a criminal conviction, a balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.

Chevalier hasn’t filed a response to the forfeiture case, which contains allegations not proven in court.

According to the claim, Chevalier is the sole director of Coast Pet and Plant Supplies Ltd., a hydroponics and cannabis-growing equipment supplier. The claim says that Chevalier isn’t lawfully authorized to produce or possess cannabis.

According to the civil forfeiture office’s claim, on Feb. 21, Chevalier drove his 2002 GMC Sierra pickup truck into parked vehicles in the parking garage of his apartment in the 13700 block of 74 Avenue, Surrey.

Emergency responders extracted Chevalier from the truck and gave him assistance, finding that he was suffering from hypoxia, a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply. He was transported to hospital. While providing medical assistance, the emergency responders found $8,625 in cash in Chevalier’s pockets, according to the civil forfeiture office’s claim.

The money was handed over to the RCMP.

The RCMP searched the pickup before having it towed and found a backpack on the front passenger floor.

The backpack contained a large amount of bundled currency, some of which was in plain view, which totalled $416,200, according to the claim.

The money was loose but also bundled with elastic bands and inside sealed plastic bags.

“The money was bundled or packaged in a manner not consistent with standard banking practices,” said the claim filed by the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office.

A later examination of a random selection of the money found that some of it contained traces of cocaine, the cannabis-compound THC, and methamphetamine, according to the civil forfeiture office’s court filing.

Also found by police were records of sale, collection and debt, called “score sheets,” several prescriptions in the name of Chevalier, and a silver USB device.