Province trying to seize property used to build drug superlab in rural B.C.
Landowner denies responsibility for lab, blames tenants
British Columbia's Civil Forfeiture Office is trying to seize a rural B.C. property that housed what police called the "largest, most sophisticated drug superlab in Canada."
The civil forfeiture office was created to ensure that people in B.C. don't profit from unlawful activity.
A notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court alleges that the owner of the Falkland, B.C. property "knew or should have known" about the activity happening on his land and if he didn't, says he was "willfully blind or reckless to the manner in which the property was used and is likely to be used in the future" and seeks to take control of the land.
Falkland is an unincorporated community about 50 kilometres east of Kamloops, B.C.
In his response, property owner Michael Driehuyzen denies any knowledge or responsibility for wrongdoing and instead places the blame on "his tenant or his tenant's agents."
The forfeiture office also named Gaganpreet Singh Randhawa as a defendant in the case. Randhawa was the sole person arrested in the aftermath of the superlab's discovery and dismantling. His response to the civil claim has not yet been filed.
Online court records show Randhawa is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 21 in Surrey, B.C. He is facing several criminal drugs and weapons charges for alleged offences in Surrey and Richmond, B.C.
'Sophisticated clandestine laboratory'
According to police, the lab was discovered by federal investigators focused on combating illicit drug production in Canada.
When announcing the raid in October 2024, police said the lab was believed to be run by a "transnational organized crime group... involved in the mass-production, and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada, and internationally."
Police said they seized fentanyl, supplies and precursor materials that would have amounted to more than 95,500,000 potentially lethal doses and worth an estimated $485 million in profit from the property.
In the civil court documents, B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office describes the property as the site of "a large sophisticated laboratory producing, and capable of producing, large quantities of controlled substances including fentanyl, methamphetamine and... MDMA."
Also on the property, it says, were 52 kilograms of fentanyl, 30 kilograms of MDMA, "several tonnes" of precursor chemicals used for making illegal drugs, "a sophisticated system of security cameras hidden throughout the property" and other equipment including a 500 kilowatt generator and a mass spectrometer, which can be used to analyze pharmaceutical-grade drugs.
Further, the claim states that the property had in 2015 and 2016 been searched by police as the site of an illegal cannabis grow operation and that Driehuyzen was also the owner of the property at that time.
However, Driehuyzen's response to the lawsuit says that he purchased the property using the money he makes as an electrician and that "no portion of the property represents proceeds of crime."
With files from Karin Larsen and Tom Popyk