wmlro.com: Canadian property agent used rented houses as drugs farms
John Trac was the most successful letting agent with Livin Realty (sic). Small wonder: he rented properties to himself and grew drugs in them, laundering the proceeds through a network of companies, it is alleged.
Trac booked a total of 54 properties from unsuspecting landlords in mostly well-to-do areas and grew an estimated CDN2 million worth of canabis in them.
46 year old Trac pleaded guilty to the production and possession and trafficking of marijuana over a period from 2000 to 2002.
He also admitted money laundering - and evasion of income tax and GST on his illicit earnings.
At a confiscation hearing, the court heard that round-figure sums, typically CDN25,000, 20,000 or 15,000 would be paid into his corporate account - and then immediately transferred to one of several offshore accounts.
He also banked CDN54,800 in cash - which was then used to purchase a fixed term deposit CD (in Canada known as a Guaranteed Investment Certificate for CDN50,000.
So far, three properties either in the name of Trac or his wife plus 23 bank accounts or CDs have been frozen with an estimated value of CDN2 million. More than three quarters of a million Canadian dollars in accounts have been admitted to be proceeds of drugs trafficking.
The RCMP are trying to track down another estate agent, Jennifer Wu, who has been charged with offences similar to Trac's - but she has disappeared.
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