Business alleged 'drug front'

The provincial government is looking to seize two Kelowna properties that it claims were purchased with funds from drug trafficking.

In a civil lawsuit filed in BC Supreme Court on Tuesday, B.C.'s director of civil forfeiture claims All Out Customs & Collision Ltd. on Kelowna's Neave Court is a “front or shell company and does not conduct any legitimate business.”

This comes after police raided the business last December and allegedly found cocaine, MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms and a large quantity of cannabis, according to the civil forfeiture suit.

The lawsuit names Richard and Tania Madore as the “directors and operating minds” of All Out Customs. In addition to the Neave Court property, the provincial government is also seeking the forfeiture of the Madore's five-acre property on Miller Road, where the couple live.

BC Assessment lists the value of the Southeast Kelowna home at more than $2 million and the couple has owned it since 2004. Meanwhile, All Out Customs has owned the Neave Court property since 2010, and BC Assessment lists the All Out Customs' unit in the industrial building at $913,000.

But while the province is actively trying to seize the Neave Court property, it was listed for sale two weeks ago, with an asking price of $869,000.

The police investigation into suspected drug trafficking in Kelowna began in February 2023, according to the forfeiture suit.

The province says Richard Madore was an “investigation target” of police, and he and other targets were seen attending the Neave Court property multiple times in September and November 2023 for “short duration meets, and transportation of bags between vehicles, consistent with drug trafficking.”

When police executed a search warrant on the property on Dec. 13, 2023, officers allegedly found 8.2 kilograms of cannabis, more than three kg of cannabis oil, 64.5 grams of cocaine, 28.6 grams of MDMA, 282 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, along with $17,000 in cash bundled in a Ziploc bag.

The province notes the Madores were not licensed to sell or distribute cannabis.

Richard Madore was arrested at the time for possession for the purpose of trafficking, but according to online court records, he has not been charged criminally at this time.

This isn't the first time he has accused of drug trafficking. According to a 2012 BC Court of Appeal decision, police in 2006 believed Madore was a “high-level trafficker of marijuana.”

Officers stumbled upon Madore and another man on Nov. 8, 2006 on a logging road near Kelowna with $100,000 in cash and about 20 kg of cannabis. While Madore was first convicted of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, the appeals court reduced the conviction to simple possession, because the Crown had not proven who was the buyer and who was the seller.

As a result, his two-year conditional sentence was reduced to a $2,200 fine.

But if the BC Civil Forfeiture Office is successful in its latest bid against the Madores, the new allegations could end up much more costly. The suit claims the Neave and Miller properties were not only purchased with funds from drug trafficking, but that the properties were used as instruments in money laundering.

The Madores have not filed any formal responses to the civil forfeiture action. None of the claims made in the civil forfeiture suit have been test in court.