Province wants to seize 10 properties belonging to alleged drug trafficker in Prince George

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.

None of the allegations have been tested or proven in court and Prediger has not filed a response to the lawsuit.

Lawsuit claims properties used for drug deals

Eight of the properties are 1960s-era townhouses in the Alpine Villlage, in the city's VLA neighbourhood near downtown. 

The other two properties are of significantly greater value: a 2007 single-family home with an assessed valued of $646,000 near the Aberdeen Glen Golf Course, and a 1979 two-storey home on Riverview Road assessed at $777,000.

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 Alpine Village properties to Prediger for $1 each and "other good and valuable consideration.''

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.

'A significant figure in the local drug trade': Police

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.

It also documents a number of other properties that have passed through the ownership of either Prediger or known associates, including residents on Quince Street, Douglas Street and Tabor Blvd., all of which are alleged to have contained illicit drugs or paraphernalia associated with the sale of drugs at the time they were under Prediger's control.

The 10 properties identified in the suit 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 from the Canadian Press.