Two years after a police search found drugs and stolen property in a house that backs onto a school, police have been granted an application to seize the home.
A 58-year-old Red Deer man found in the home, 37 Wells St., is now facing four money laundering related charges. The house backs onto Westpark Middle School.
On June 17, 2015, police executed a search warrant at the semi-detached home and found 10,000 prescription pills and about $14,000 in cash.
The house, worth $300,000 and the cash are now frozen and a RCMP application to seize the house and cash will be determined at a property disposal hearing scheduled for Sept. 18.
The new charges come after a detailed investigation into money laundering led by the Red Deer RCMP fraud unity’s financial crimes investigator and supported by the Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada’s financial intelligence unit.
“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,” said Const. William Lewadniak, Red Deer RCMP financial crimes investigator in a news release.
“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.”
Two doors down from the house now seized by police, Braydon Dupe said he had always wondered about the property, which features a large two-story garage that takes up most of the yard.
He was shocked to learn what was going on at the home.
If the court rules the property was obtained by crime or used to commit crime, the court can direct proceeds from its sale to compensate victims, reimburse expenses or be forfeited to the Civil Forfeiture Fund.
Among the new charges laid against Allie Gader, 58, are laundering the proceeds of crime, fraud, trafficking in stolen property over $5,000 and possession of stolen property over $5,000. He is scheduled to appear in Red Deer provincial court on Nov. 22 on these charges.
Gader is scheduled to stand trial on four counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. The trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 10 in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench and run for three days.