The province is seeking forfeiture of a Richmond condo, a BMW sedan and cash worth more than $1 million, allegedly linked to drug labs in the Lower Mainland.
A special federal RCMP unit raided the Richmond condo and a Surrey property in September where they found nearly $86,000 in cash, more than five kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine and firearms, including automatic assault rifles.
In a civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court this month, the province says the condo, vehicle and cash are the “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.”
The mortgaged condo, valued at $937,000 by the B.C. Assessment Authority, is located in the 12300-block of McNeely Drive in Richmond. That is where the cash and about 200 grams of cocaine were found on Sep. 4, along with various bags of unknown powdered substances believed to be illicit drugs or precursor chemicals, according to the forfeiture claim.
The RCMP’s clandestine laboratory enforcement and response team, known as CLEAR, also found records of sales, collections and debts, a money counter, five cellphones and two laptops at the condo.
The condo is owned by Tan Ping Ben Ng, who is named in the forfeiture suit along with Yuen Mai Alice Li and Marco Lok Tin Ng.
The 2022 BMW is owned by F&J Management, but the forfeiture claim alleges that Marco Ng is the “beneficial owner”.
Marco Ng is believed to be the son of Ben and Alice, and all of them lived at the Richmond condo, according to the forfeiture claim.
During the RCMP investigation, at all times Marco Ng drove the BMW that was observed at the Richmond condo and the Surrey property, said the province in its court filing.
“Marco Ng attended various stores to purchase items necessary for the production of controlled substances, and used the vehicle to do so,” according to the claim.
The civil claim says 13 firearms including a .50-calibre long gun, semi-automatic assault rifles and handguns were found Sep. 4 at the Surrey property, although address was not detailed. In addition to the fentanyl, police found items similar to those purchased by Marco Ng necessary for the production of illicit drugs, says the claim.
On Wednesday, the RCMP announced details of a September raid in Surrey and Richmond, saying they had dismantled a major drug lab in Surrey.
At the property
in the 12900-block of 54A Avenue in Surrey,
the RCMP found 14 kgs of suspected fentanyl, 13 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and additional magazines, as well as
206 litres of gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), a chemical precursor.
RCMP said one person was arrested at the McNeely Drive site in Richmond, who has been released without charges while the investigation continues.
In the civil claim, the province alleges the defendants’ unlawful activities include the production, possession and trafficking of illicit drugs, possession of the proceeds of crime, money laundering, and failure to disclose taxable income.
None of the defendants have responded in court to the civil claim.
There is no record of criminal charges of the defendants in B.C.’s online court system linked to the allegations in the civil case.
Civil forfeiture is tested at a lower threshold than criminal prosecutions, a balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.
The RCMP have dismantled several drug labs in the Lower Mainland and other parts of B.C. in 2024 and 2025, and the civil claim says the investigation of the Richmond condo and Surrey property came as a result of an earlier case.
In March of this year, the RCMP used numerous search warrants across the cities of
Pitt Meadows, Mission, Aldergrove, Langley, and Richmond
to locate three fentanyl production labs, with two suspects being arrested at one of the locations.
And in October of 2024, the RCMP took down
the largest illicit drug lab ever found in Canada
, seizing a record amounts of drugs, precursor chemicals and firearms in Falkland, east of Kamloops in the B.C. Interior.
In Falkland, police seized 54 kgs of fentanyl, 390 kgs of methamphetamine, 35 kgs of cocaine, 15 kgs of MDMA, and six kgs of cannabis.
The RCMP also seized a total of 89 firearms, which included dozens of handguns, assault rifles and submachine guns, many of which were loaded and ready to use. The searches also yielded several explosive devices, a massive amount of ammunition, firearm silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armour and $500,000 in cash.
While there have been some charges in the drug busts, the province also uses civil forfeiture to seize the assets of alleged criminal activity.
Some critics
say civil forfeiture is problematic
because it allows the government to seize property and assets linked to criminal activity without the owner being convicted of a crime.
However, the B.C. government-commissioned
Cullen inquiry into money laundering
recommended in 2022 that the Civil Forfeiture Office expand its operations.
