B.C. out to take senior’s home over son’s crimes

Karen Leach beat a series of charges two weeks ago when her son pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and firearms counts and the Crown dropped its case against the Coquitlam senior, her daughter and grandson.

But Leach is still before the courts as the government tries to get her longtime Coquitlam residence forfeited as an instrument of illegal activity.

When Leach’s house on Cortes Avenue was raided by the RCMP in June 2017, investigators seized $700,000 in Canadian and U.S. cash, six firearms and 2,000 fentanyl pills.

Her son Andrew, who was sentenced in B.C. provincial court on May 25 to 16 years in jail for leading a fentanyl-trafficking operation,

didn’t live in the family home where his drug proceeds were stashed.

That’s why his sister Rhonda, nephew Marcus and his mother were all originally charged as being part of his operation.

And while the criminal charges were stayed against the relatives on May 15, the director of civil forfeiture’s suit continues to want the family home, Andrew Leach’s Coquitlam condo and several vehicles forfeited to the government.

The suit alleges the house, currently assessed at $893,000, and the vehicles “are instruments and proceeds of unlawful activity.”

The court documents said the house “has been used by the defendants to engage in unlawful activities” including some that “were likely to cause serious bodily harm.”

“The defendants did not and do not have sufficient legitimate income to have acquired and maintained the real property and the vehicles,” the director of civil forfeiture alleged. “Each of the defendants knew or ought to have known the manner in which the real property and the vehicles were being used.”

The crimes linked to the house are trafficking and storage and production of controlled substances, possession of the proceeds of crime, laundering the proceeds of unlawful activity, credit card fraud, and unsafe storage of firearms, the forfeiture claim says.

In her response, Leach, who is 70, denied participating in criminal activity or having any knowledge of others linked to criminal activity in her house.

She also said she “has no knowledge of the items located and seized by the RCMP at the Cortes Avenue property.”

But an agreed statement of facts read at her 34-year-old son’s sentencing said four guns were found inside Karen Leach’s bedroom closet, including a Cobray M-11 machine pistol with an oversized magazine and readily accessible ammunition, a Winchester Model 1200 police 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock pistol with an unloaded oversized magazine and a second magazine containing 17 rounds of ammunition, and a loaded Glock 23 containing 15 rounds.

The senior also had a silencer, a scope and 2,000 fentanyl pills in the closet. In her 40-yearold daughter’s bedroom, police found $450,270 under the bed. In grandson Marcus’ room, another $224,089 was found, as well as 9mm ammunition.

In the family’s TV room, police found a box labelled “Andrew’s counter,” which contained a money-counting machine. They also seized over 1,000 Xanax pills.

Two more pistols, both with destroyed serial numbers, were found in the house’s garage, wrapped in tea towels, along with more ammunition and a second silencer.

The director also wants Andrew Leach’s condo, assessed at $237,000, forfeited.

Andrew Leach was charged after a year-long undercover investigation by Coquitlam RCMP into a fentanyl drug-trafficking organization.