Battle brews over B.C. civil forfeiture after Vancouver drug activist targeted

The B.C. government says more than $100,000 seized in raids of Vancouver mushroom dispensaries should be forfeited as the proceeds of crime.

The B.C. government says more than $100,000 seized in police raids of Vancouver mushroom dispensaries should be forfeited as the proceeds of crime.

But activist Dana Larsen, who is named as a defendant in the civil forfeiture lawsuit, said he will fight to get the cash returned.

Larsen said Tuesday that, despite being listed as a defendant, he doesn’t own any of the money that Vancouver police officers took during raids on Nov. 1, 2023, and on Oct. 17, 2024. He said he is merely the spokesperson for the businesses, which are operated by the Strathcona Tea Society. The society is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, filed Jan. 17.

Larsen said his lawyer suggested they have a good chance of getting some of the cash back.

“If we were to get some of that money back, it’d be nice. It really affects our ‘get your drugs tested program,’ which we put most of our money towards, and it’s been very challenging keeping that going when we have these huge financial losses,” he said.

The lawsuit alleges Larsen and the society operated three dispensaries — the main one at 651 East Hastings St., another at 247 West Broadway and a third at 8480 Granville St.

“At the material times, the businesses possessed and trafficked scheduled substances under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,” the statement of claim said, adding that the stores sold psilocybin mushrooms, coca leaf, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

The Broadway and Granville locations “also operated as an online store for mail orders.”

A third defendant named Catherine Bell “was employed by, was an agent for, or was otherwise associated with either D. Larsen or Strathcona Tea Society, or both,” the lawsuit said.

Bell used her car “to transport scheduled substances … between the businesses, the Bell residence and Canada Post or other mail outlets for the purpose of trafficking said schedules substances,” the director alleged.

Vancouver police first raided the dispensaries 14 months ago, seizing $79,775.65 from the East Hastings location, $3,415.97 at the West Broadway store and $1,253.30 at the South Granville location.

More than 150 kilograms of psilocybin mushrooms were also found at the East Hastings store, as well as 21 kilograms of coca leaf, 14 kg of LSD and three kilograms of DMT.

Smaller amounts of mushrooms, coca leaf, LSD and DMT were found at the other two locations.

When the VPD raided the 651 East Hastings location again two days before the last provincial election, they found another $18,770.75.

During the Oct. 17 search, police found “fridges, safes and other storage areas stocked with controlled substances and other products, price lists for various controlled substances and other products,” a cash register and point-of-sale machines, as well as a Visa card in Larsen’s name and an envelope addressed to him.

More than $10,000 of the cash was in an automated teller machine “with high levels of cocaine residue on it,” the lawsuit said. Some currency was “stored in electrical panels.”

Bell’s 2013 Smart car was also seized by police at her West End residence that day.

The government alleges Bell’s car and all the money should be forfeited as “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity,” including trafficking, possession of the proceeds of crime, money laundering and failure to declare taxable income.

Larsen hasn’t been criminally charged and said Tuesday that he doesn’t expect he will be given how much time has passed.

“Who knows how it’ll play out, and everything, but it’s very odd for them to wait this long and then lay a charge, right?” he said.

“But if we did get charged and go to court, the goal would be to have some kind of a challenge that ultimately could make something good come out of it, and possibly overturn some aspects of these laws.”

Larsen said businesses connected to him always seem to get targeted by police because he is a high-profile legalization activist.

“There’s a lot of other mushroom dispensaries in Vancouver, and although a lot of them, like us, have challenges with the city when it comes to business licences and fines and threats of closure … we’re the only one to have been raided like this twice.”

Bluesky: @kimbolan.bsky.social