Three men from Abbotsford, Surrey and Nanaimo are named in a civil forfeiture lawsuit that seeks to obtain a vehicle that was allegedly used in drug-trafficking operations.
The notice of civil claim was filed Sept. 20 by the province’s director of civil forfeiture and also seeks to obtain more than $13,000 in cash that was generated
from the alleged criminal activity.
The court documents also name a Surrey-based company, Sharp Motorsports Ltd.
The lawsuit states that a 2015 Nissan Pathfinder was owned by Sharp Motorsports and was leased to Jordan Hudson Lowe of Nanaimo on behalf of an associate, Shiva Manish Mudaliar of Surrey.
The documents state that the vehicle was stopped by Surrey RCMP on Feb. 6 of this year. Mudaliar was driving, and another man – Gurkirat Singh Sohi of Abbotsford – was in the passenger seat.
According to the lawsuit, Mudaliar was arrested for driving without insurance.
The vehicle was then searched on Feb. 8, and police located an illegal after-market hidden compartment.
The compartment contained $13,460 in cash, bundled with rubber bands, and a loaded Glock 42 handgun, the documents indicate.
They state that a single “spitball” of cocaine was located in the backseat of the vehicle.
“The money was found in proximity to a controlled substance and was bundled or packaged in a manner not consistent with standard banking practices,” states the notice of civil claim.
Police seized both the vehicle and the money.
The lawsuit says that Mudaliar has previously been convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
The civil forfeiture office alleges that the vehicle and the money are “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.”
“The vehicle and the money have been used by the defendants to engage in unlawful activities which variously resulted in, or were likely to result in, the acquisition of property or an interest in property, or caused or could have resulted in serious bodily harm,” the documents state.
The lawsuit states that all the defendants, individually or collectively, “knew or ought to have known” that the vehicle was equipped with the hidden compartment and that it was being used to engage in criminal activity.
Liens against all of Sharp Motorsports’ “present and after acquired personal property” were registered in November 2018 and October 2023.
The defendants have not yet filed a response to the civil claim.
If a judge decides assets must be forfeited, they can then be sold and the proceeds used by the government for victim compensation, crime prevention activities, crime remediation activities, and administration of the act.
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