Hells Angel forfeits interest in property where police found meth lab
Kim Bolan
The Vancouver Sun
Just a few months ago, Hells Angel Justino Pace told a reporter he was “annoyed” that the government was suing him over a rented property where police found a drug lab.
Now Pace has agreed to forfeit his share of the Mission property, according to the B.C. director of civil forfeiture.
The government agency said that under a consent order filed recently in B.C. Supreme Court, the Civil Forfeiture Office received about $23,000 in net proceeds from the sale of the building.
The single-level, 3,150-square-foot industrial unit at 7191 Horne St. was sold for about $229,000. Most of the cash went to pay off a mortgage.
Pace told Postmedia News in March that it was unfair for the government to name him in the civil forfeiture suit because he had no idea that his tenant was operating a meth and ecstasy lab in the building.
“I don’t understand why they named me as a defendant when I’m not even charged,” said Pace. “I’m so annoyed. I’m annoyed right now just thinking about it, that they could even do this.”
Pace’s woes began in September 2014, when a fire broke out on the property and the local fire department responded.
Firefighters saw white smoke pouring from the building and chemicals consistent with a synthetic drug lab and called in the RCMP.
Police said at the time that it was one of the largest illegal drug labs in B.C. history.
The RCMP’s specialized drug lab unit dismantled the lab, over several days, recovering significant quantities of MDMA, ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine.
No one was charged, but Mission RCMP sent the file to the Civil Forfeiture Office, which filed the lawsuit against the numbered company that owned the building. Pace is listed as its secretary.
The suit said that Pace’s company financed the purchase of the property in 2008 in part with a mortgage and that it had been used to facilitate unlawful activities that might include storage, concealment, production and trafficking of controlled substances and laundering the proceeds of unlawful activity.
Pace also told Postmedia that he “was so shocked by things that came out of that place.”
“I didn’t even think they could put so much stuff in there.”
Solicitor General Mike Morris said the office “has always taken drug lab cases seriously.”
“The public safety value of doing so has never been greater, when you consider how prevalent fentanyl is among street drugs today,” Morris said in a statement Tuesday.
“This particular forfeiture is noteworthy for the sheer volume of volatile chemicals involved, which put both the public and first responders in great danger.”
The City of Mission spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning up the Horne Street property.
Pace is a member of the Haney chapter of the biker gang.
The Civil Forfeiture Office has another long-running court battle involving three Hells Angels clubhouses.
The government is seeking the forfeiture of the bikers’ clubhouses in Nanaimo, East Vancouver and Kelowna in a case that began in 2007.
The Hells Angels have counter-sued the government, arguing that civil forfeiture legislation is unconstitutional.
The trial is scheduled to begin in May.
© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.