The B.C. government says in a new lawsuit that a Denman Island house linked to illicit pot sales should be forfeited as a proceed of crime.
The recent statement of claim alleges that Damien Scanlon’s company bought the property at 4001 Park Rd. on Sept. 14, 2020 for $425,000 with funds earned through trafficking “controlled substances,” as well as “promoting sales, supplying, possessing and producing cannabis and possession of illicit cannabis.”
The court document filed April 21 by the B.C. director of civil forfeiture says community safety unit officers visited a business in Victoria called MyKush on Jan. 19, 2023 and found Scanlon present.
Inside the Esquimalt Road business, officers found “a sophisticated cannabis distribution operation” as well as psilocybin and “a significant amount of MyKush, Twisted Extracts, MOTA, and other branded, as well as non-branded, cannabis products.”
They also found MyKush labels, weigh scales, packing slips with addresses and orders noted on them, a joint rolling machine and an industrial-sized grinding machine, a vacuum-sealing machine, packaging material and non-cannabis merchandise for various cannabis brands.
The director alleges that Scanlon was operating a website “for the promotion, sale, and distribution of cannabis products and psilocybin products.”
“At all material times, MyKush and D. Scanlon had no lawful authority to possess, possess for the purpose of distributing, distribute, possess for the purpose of selling, sell, or promote cannabis,” the lawsuit alleged. “At all material times, MyKush and D. Scanlon were selling or distributing cannabis unlawfully.”
Scanlon registered his company on Oct. 31, 2018 as 1185096 B.C. Ltd. and changed its name to D. Scanlon Holdings Inc. on Aug. 20, 2021.
The government agency alleges that the unlawful activity includes possession for the purpose of trafficking, and trafficking controlled substances, selling, promoting sales, supplying, possessing, and producing cannabis, and possession of illicit cannabis, possession of the proceeds of crime, laundering the proceeds of unlawful activity and failure to declare taxable income.
No statement of defence has yet been filed. Nor has Scanlon been charged criminally.
It is just the latest lawsuit filed by the civil forfeiture office targeted someone allegedly selling black market cannabis.
In fact, a company that produced MOTA products was the subject of a suit last October seeking the forfeiture of 10 Vancouver Island properties, including two on Denman Island.
That government suit alleged company directors Dianna Laura Bridge and Melanie Claire Durupt had also been selling illicit cannabis and psilocybin products through MOTA Green Meds since 2011.
In their response to the suit, both claim that a warehouse search done in 2018 by Saanich Police violated their Charter rights, therefore invalidating the subsequent claims by the B.C. government.
