A luxury house in Surrey that police say is linked to a Mexican cartel was identified in another major drug trafficking investigation
A luxurious Surrey house that police say is linked to a Mexican cartel had been identified in another major drug trafficking investigation dating back a decade, Postmedia has learned.
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The owner of the house, James Sclater, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the B.C. government that argues the property, as well as a second Surrey house he owns, should be forfeited as the proceeds of crime.
Last week, the RCMP’s federal and serious organized crime unit announced it had disrupted drug traffickers linked to the notorious Sinaloa cartel from setting up shop in B.C.
Cpl. Arash Seyed said police searched their “heavily fortified” house on Sept. 23, arresting three men and seizing “23 firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition, multi-kilos of illicit drugs, and other items.”
“RCMP federal policing investigators first became aware of this transnational organized crime group’s large-scale drug importation venture into British Columbia in 2021 and quickly acted to identify, disrupt and ultimately dismantle this Mexican drug cartel proxy before it gained its foothold in Canada,” he said.
The trio was released without charge as the investigation continues, Seyed said.
No address for the house being used as the gang’s “headquarters” was released by police, but Postmedia learned it is the residence owned by Sclater on 77th Avenue, which he purchased in 2010.
Surveillance cameras and razor wire matching Seyed’s description could be seen at the house, as well as a No Trespassing sign featuring a picture of a shotgun that read: “Are you going to listen to me in English? Or do I have to speak to you in 12 gauge?”
B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture filed a lawsuit against Sclater in May of 2019, which stated that “some or all of the funds used to acquire and/or maintain the real property were proceeds of the unlawful activity and/or tax evasion.”
The statement of claim said that the 77th Avenue house and Sclater’s second property on 92nd Avenue should both be forfeited to the government. The total 2024 assessed value of the two residences is just under $3.9 million.
The director laid out details of an RCMP investigation called Eprobang that began in November 2014 into a drug trafficking network in which Sclater, his then-father-in-law Gary Van Buuren, and several others, were allegedly involved.
Sclater worked with Nanaimo trafficker Nicholas Lucier “and at times supplied Mr. Lucier’s trafficking network with controlled substances for sale,” the director alleged.
“On Oct. 8, 2016, Mr. Lucier’s associate, Yevgeniy Nagornyy-Kryvonos attended the 77th Avenue property to receive fentanyl from Mr. Sclater.”
Two days later, Nagornyy-Kryvonos met Daemon Gariepy, who was arrested shortly after the meeting with a kilo of fentanyl, the lawsuit said.
On Nov. 6, 2016, Sclater and Van Buuren met another drug trafficking associate in Surrey, the director said, after which Van Buuren was arrested with a kilogram each of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Police searched the 77th Avenue house on Nov. 6, 2016 and found 12 rifles, four shotguns, a deactivated grenade and other weapons, as well as “various pills containing fentanyl,” score sheets of alleged drug transactions, a money counter, a vacuum sealer and a wiretap detection kit, the director said.
Lucier’s house and two other rental units linked to him were also searched and police found “thousands of grams each of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine” and other drugs, as well as more than $2 million in Canadian currency.
The civil forfeiture case against Sclater continues. Last month, a government lawyer filed an application to have Sclater questioned under oath in the case.
In a 2019 statement of response, Sclater denied “all allegations made by the director of civil forfeiture.”
“The circumstances of the police investigation are outside of the knowledge of the defendant,” said the response, filed by lawyer Joven Narwal. “However, the defendant specifically denies any involvement in the trafficking of controlled substances.”
“The defendant has not been charged with any criminal offence in relation to the allegations,” the response also said.
And the response alleged the RCMP violated Sclater’s Charter rights during the Nov. 6, 2016 search.
Narwal did not respond to Postmedia phone and email messages left Monday.
As for the others allegedly involved, no one appears to have been charged criminally in the Eprobang probe.
But Nicholas Lucier was ordered last year to forfeit the $2 million cash to the director in a separate civil forfeiture case. The long-time island criminal was arrested in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico in 2012 in relation to a 2009 cocaine trafficking investigation.
And Daemin Gariepy, another accused named in the Sclater civil forfeiture lawsuit, pleaded guilty in Florida in 2020 to possession of cocaine on a vessel after he was caught with another B.C. man on a sailboat west of Panama in September 2019. The boat had 404 kilograms of cocaine on board. He was sentenced to 91 months.