Crown files lawsuit for $250K in alleged drug cash to be forfeited

Two men found in distress after overdosing in a Yaletown highrise in February are now facing a lawsuit by the B.C. government over more than $250,000 in suspected drug proceeds found in their suite.

The B.C. director of civil forfeiture also wants cash in two corporate bank accounts handed to the government, as well as the Vancouver Island home of one of the men. At about 4:45 a.m. on Feb. 15, Vancouver police responded to a call of a male in distress in an eighth-floor unit of a building in the 700-block of Richards Street.

Police Const. Justin Kurtz “found two male individuals who appeared to be severely intoxicated by drugs,” a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on April 1 says.

“While waiting for additional police resources and paramedics to arrive, Const. Kurtz observed various items in the apartment that he believed to be related to the illegal drug trade. These included stacks of cash, an electric currency bill counter, plastic bags containing unknown white substances and drug paraphernalia.”

Police identified the two men as convicted drug trafficker Sung-Kin Alfred Kong and Ryan Matthew Charles Pitcher, who were both taken to hospital for treatment.

The VPD obtained a search warrant for the apartment and later that day found $255,346.25 in Canadian currency, an electric bill counter and a stash of various illicit substances, including 15 kilos of cocaine, about 14 grams of magic mushrooms, a five-gallon bucket containing clear liquid and “numerous vials and Ziploc bags containing unknown powders” and close to 300 unknown colourful pills.

“The cash was not packaged in accordance with standard banking practices — for example the number of bills per bundle was not consistent and the bills were not oriented in the same direction within the bundles,” the director says in the suit.

Kong bought his Mill Bay property in August 2016 for $276,500, according to land title records obtained by Postmedia News. The government’s suit says the “property has never been encumbered by a mortgage since Mr. Kong became the registered owner.”

Kong was sentenced in 2011 to five months in jail after pleading guilty in Victoria to possession for the purpose of trafficking. A car he was using at the time “for the storage and transportation of cocaine, crack cocaine and ecstasy” was the subject of an earlier successful civil forfeiture claim.

Despite Kong being a convicted trafficker, he was able to start a numbered company, 1197923 B.C. Ltd., in February 2019 and open a company bank account. The cash in that account is also part of the government’s current claim.

Neither man has yet filed a statement of defence to the government’s allegations.