The director of civil forfeiture filed a lawsuit against longtime B.C. gangster Garinder Deo on Wednesday, a day after police raided his $5.5 million West Vancouver home
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The B.C. government wants to keep three properties worth more than $11 million linked to an accused drug smuggler whom U.S. authorities allege aided an Indian-based gang involved in extortions and contract killings.
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The director of civil forfeiture filed a lawsuit against longtime B.C. gangster Garinder Deo on Wednesday, a day after police raided his $5.5 million West Vancouver home in connection with a massive U.S. investigation.
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Deo, a Wolfpack gang associate, is charged in California with aiding the so-called Bhagwanpuria gang “by purchasing bulk quantities of cocaine and heroin that were to be shipped from Southern California to the eastern United States.
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While 24 people were arrested Tuesday on charges stemming from the FBI’s Operation Hard Ball, Deo has not yet been found. The massive probe targeted the notorious India-based Bishnoi gang, the Bhagwanpuria group and the Dhanda drug trafficking organization, allegedly headed by Ravinder Dhanda of Surrey.
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Dhanda and two alleged associates, Jaskarn Baghri and Gurtej Smagh, appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, though details of the proceedings are covered by a publication ban.
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The director of civil forfeiture’s statement of claim said the three properties: 2030 Westdean Cres., in West Van, 12645 26A Ave. and 16087 59 Ave. — both in Surrey — should be forfeited as proceeds of criminal activity.
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“G. Deo is a member of a criminal organization involved in profit-generating unlawful activity,” the director alleged.
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The court document said that Deo owns all three properties either “directly or indirectly” through his company 1163658 B.C. Ltd., his wife’s company GSMD Enterprises Ltd., and through his sister and brother-in-law.
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In addition to Deo, his wife Aleksandra Ponomareva, sister Harinder Kaur Deo and her spouse, Lakhbir Singh Gill, are also named as defendants in the forfeiture lawsuit.
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None of the defendants had “legitimate income and/or business activity sufficient to acquire, finance, maintain, or preserve” the three properties, director said.
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Laid out in detail are allegations from the joint U.S.-RCMP investigation into “organized criminal activity, international drug trafficking, extortion, racketeering and violence” in which Deo, 40, was a target.
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“Deo has been associated with high-level organized crime, organized criminal gangs in the greater Vancouver area as well as international criminal syndicates, drug trafficking, importation or exportation, money laundering, trafficking in firearms and violence and enriching international criminal organizations and terrorist groups,” the lawsuit said.
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“Deo has been the subject of police warnings and police intelligence relating to organized crime risk and violence.”
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The government agency also said that “Deo directly or indirectly engaged in, facilitated, benefited from, conspired in, or was associated with unlawful activity.”
