VICTORIA — The B.C. government wants 10 properties in Prince George forfeited for their alleged use in a years-long drug trafficking operation.
The province's Director of Civil Forfeiture claims in a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court that properties owned by Daniel Prediger should be handed over to the government because of their use in "unlawful activity."
The civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in Victoria alleges Prediger is a member of a drug trafficking organization who bought properties with illicit proceeds from activities in Prince George, about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver.
The director alleges Prediger owned some of the properties through a company registered in B.C. called JLD Enterprises Ltd.
Prediger is the "sole director and operating mind" of the company, which was registered to his last known address on Riverview Road in Prince George, the lawsuit says.
In May 2023, the lawsuit says the company transferred ownership of three of the properties to Prediger for $1 each and "other good and valuable consideration."
Those properties, according to BC Assessment, are townhouses built in the 1960s.
The lawsuit says garbage collected in 2017 from the Riverview Road home contained records of drug sales and debts, as well as plastic bags contaminated with cocaine and a drug cutting agent.
The civil forfeiture claim also says one of Prediger's associates sold heroin to an undercover police officer in 2018 on his behalf.
It says other properties allegedly used by Prediger and his associates contained documents including cheques from JLD Enterprises, a prohibited "morning star" weapon, as well as drugs including methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine and psilocybin.
The director claims the properties were used for drug dealing and tax evasion, and Prediger's legitimate income was "insufficient" to enable him to own them.
None of the allegations have been tested or proven in court and Prediger has not filed a response to the lawsuit.
The 10 properties have a combined assessed value of more than $2.2 million. An online search of B.C. court records shows Prediger faced several traffic violations in Prince George between 2009 and 2021, but he hasn't been charged with any drug offences described in the civil forfeiture lawsuit.
In a ruling released by the B.C. Court of Appeal in March 2023 in an unrelated drug trafficking case, Sgt. Chad Chamberlain with the Prince George RCMP called Prediger "'a significant figure in the local drug trade' who 'operates at a higher-level.'" Neither Chamberlain nor a lawyer who previously represented Prediger responded to requests for comment.
— Darryl Greer in Vancouver
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23, 2023.
The Canadian Press
