Alleged grow-op house targeted again
Province’s civil forfeiture office going after family for third time
For more than a dozen years, some members of the Tahirsylaj family have allegedly been growers of illicit cannabis.
The B.C. government has filed lawsuits to seize property owned by family members on three separate occasions in the past decade.
Twice a forfeiture lawsuit was filed against the same Mission acreage.
It was ordered sold in 2015 as part of a settlement with the director of civil forfeiture, only to be bought back a year later by the wife of one of four Tahirsylaj brothers.
Now the government agency wants it forfeited again after Mission RCMP searched the property in January and reported finding 1,079 pot plants, three firearms, almost 3,000 rounds of ammunition and more than $525,000 cash.
The agency alleges they are proceeds of crime.
The director filed the latest lawsuit on March 27, alleging the land at 31637 Laslo Ave. has “been used by the defendants to engage in unlawful activities” and that “some or all the funds used to acquire and/or maintain the Laslo Avenue property and money were proceeds of the unlawful activity.” So far, the Tahirsylaj family has not filed a statement of defence and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
Nor have new criminal charges been laid under the federal Cannabis Act.
Despite cannabis being legalized in Canada in October 2018, illicit production continues to fuel an underground market, both legal retailers and police say.
And few producing the illegal cannabis are charged, even after police obtain evidence during searches.
B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said civil forfeiture is a good option in many cases because seizing assets “puts the group out of business.”
But he would also like Ottawa to reform medical cannabis production licences because they’re “the source today of significant illegal production.”
Brothers Naser and Ylber Tahirsylaj and their brother-in-law Shemsedin Molliqaj held medical licences to produce a total of 853 plants at the Laslo property for their personal use.
But police allege they found evidence the cannabis was being packaged for sale, including “319 Ziploc bags containing approximately 240 grams each of marijuana bud, boxes filled to the top with half pounds of dried marijuana bud and additional brand new unfolded large boxes, weigh scales and a money counting machine.”
“There was no marijuana usage paraphernalia, scent of burnt marijuana, rolling papers, ashtrays or any marijuana bud within the residence at the Laslo Avenue property to indicate marijuana usage by the residents,” the lawsuit alleges.
The five-acre Laslo property, now assessed at $1.65 million, was bought for $1 million by Naser Tahirsylaj’s wife, Feride Hasani, on June 1, 2016.
A year earlier, her brother-inlaw, Enver Tahirsylaj, sold it for $800,000 as part of the settlement agreement in the second forfeiture lawsuit naming him as a defendant.
Enver bought the Laslo property on March 12, 2010. Two years later, Mission RCMP allege they found a marijuana grow operation with 1,152 plants “in various stages of growth,” a hydro bypass, growing equipment, dried bud and a firearm.
Ylber Tahirsylaj “discarded a handgun out the window of the Laslo Avenue property” during the 2012 search, the director alleged in the most recent lawsuit.
He was convicted in October 2013 of theft of electricity, possession for the purpose of trafficking and production of a controlled substance and sentenced to a year in jail.
The director filed the first claim against the Laslo property a month later.
Enver and Ylber Tahirsylaj had previously owned a house on Pembina Street in New Westminster where police found a 380-plant grow-op in 2007 leading to the first forfeiture claim by the B.C. government. The house was sold with some of the proceeds paid to the director.
In the 2020 search, two of the firearms seized — a Black Rain Fallout 15 restricted semi-automatic rifle and a Sig Sauer restricted semi-automatic handgun — were allegedly registered to Enver Tahirsylaj. Both were found in a room that contained a crib, a queen-sized bed and children’s bunk beds, the lawsuit alleges.
The third gun — a Czech Republic Model 455 rifle — was on a closet shelf in the master bedroom with a round in the chamber.
The cash, which was Canadian and foreign currency “packaged in a manner inconsistent with standard banking practices” was found throughout the house, the court documents allege.
The latest statement of claim names Hasani, her husband, Naser, her brothers-in-law Ylber and Enver Tahirsylaj, and her mother, Mahije, as defendants.
It notes that Ylber, Naser, Enver and their brother, Arben Tahirsylaj “are the registered owners of a property adjacent to the Laslo Avenue property.” Land title records show the four bought a 41-acre parcel of land at 31588 Townshipline Rd. in January 2016 for $950,000.
Ylber and Arben also bought a house on 6.6 acres on Nelson Avenue in Mission in November 2016 for $1.1 million. And all four brothers bought a 33-acre property in May 2017 for $1.7 million.
RCMP cannabis expert Sgt. Shane Holmquist said many medical licences have been misused in B.C. for years.
“I have been to medical grows where there has been punch clocks, where employees working under the table punch in just like they would in a restaurant to do their shift,” Holmquist said. Yet, legally, “with medical cannabis, only the person with the licence can tend those plants.”
And he said that even with legalization, expert black market growers can still make a lot of cash.
“Really good growers have told me they can grow for a dollar a gram,” Holmquist said. “At that price you could easily stay competitive forever with the legal market.”