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Red Deer RCMP seize West Park home and $14,000 in civil forfeiture

Sep 6, 2017 | 9:11 AM

RED DEER – RCMP have been granted their application to seize a house worth $300,000 and about $14,000 cash as proceeds of crime, coming out of a 2015 Priority Crimes Task Force search warrant.

Police seized 10,000 prescription pills and a Red Deer man isa charged with drug trafficking.

Allie Gader, 58, was charged with numerous counts of drug trafficking and one count of possession of stolen property.

Gader now faces additional charges for:
– Laundering the proceeds of crime
– Fraud
– Trafficking in stolen property over $5,000
– Possession of stolen property over $5,000

Gader is scheduled to appear in court in Red Deer on November 22.

At the time of the initial search warrant and arrest in June 2015, RCMP seized more than 10,000 prescription pills and over $15,000 cash.

The new charges are the result of a detailed investigation into money laundering led by the Red Deer RCMP Fraud Unit’s financial crimes investigator and supported by FINTRAC, Canada’s national financial intelligence unit.

The investigation involved detailed review of numerous documents that led to the money laundering charges.

The house, located at 37 Wells Street, and the cash have now been restrained under the laws of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Program.

The outcome of the RCMP’s application to seize the house and the cash will be determined at a property disposal hearing scheduled for September 18.

It will be overseen by Alberta Justice in a civil litigation process.

“This was an extremely detail-oriented investigation, tracing the movement of numerous sums of money from various sources over the course of almost two years,” says Constable William Lewadniak, Red Deer RCMP financial crimes investigator. “Red Deer RCMP’s goal in using the Civil Asset Forfeiture Program is to take the profit out of crime, cripple the financial core of organized crime, and make it more difficult for criminals to continue to break the law.”

In Alberta, proceeds seized under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Program are prevented from being sold until the courts make a final ruling about whether it should be returned or disposed of.

If the court finds that the property was obtained by crime or used to commit crime, then the court can direct the proceeds to compensate victims, reimburse expenses and/or be forfeited to the Civil Forfeiture Fund.

(Gary McKinnon)