Cigarettes and car seized by North Van RCMP

A NORTH Vancouver man
who spent the last month in jail
awaiting a conclusion to
charges of possessing hashish
for trafficking and possessing
illegal cigarettes was fined
$17,117.55 on Thursdity.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

Abbas Rajabi Ghodrat, 42, was
charged after a search of ais home
on Feb, 28 in the 200-block of East
8th Street.

Police seized 52,000 cigarettes,
48 grams of hashish and Ghodrat's
car.

Ghodrat was charged with feder-
al and provincial tax infractions in
relation to the cigarettes.

He was kept in jail because the
drug charge breached bail condi-
tions attached to unrelated drug
charges.

Ghodrat was among a group of
seven men rounded up by the North
Vancouver RCMP in December.

The arrests followed an under-
» cover operation in the North Shore's

franian community. :

The resulting charges against the
men ranged from passport forgery,
conspiracy to effect iliegal immigra-

- tion, money laundering to possess-
ing the proceeds of crime and traf-
. ficking in opium, cocaine and mari-
juana.

Ghodrat, himself, was charged in
December with two counts of traf-
ficking opium, one count of traffick-
ing marijuana, one count of possess-
ing marijuana. for trafficking pur-
poses and three counts of possessing
the proceeds of crime. ;

Meanwhile in North Vancouver

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provincial court on” ‘Thursday.
Ghodrat’s lawyer, Don Smith, said
his clent should have “a significant
lime to pay” the fines.

Smith noted it wouldn't be in the
public's interest if Ghodrat was sent
to jail again at taxpayers” expense.

He pointed out that Ghedrat had
already spent about a month in cus-
tody.

Said Judge Jerome Paradis.
“That's because he was involved in
narcotic activity while awaiting
charges on narcoties.”

Federal Crown lawyer Jay
Straith and Smith agreed that
28,235 of the seized cigarettes
would be used as a busis to calculate
the appropriate fines associated with
the tax infractions.

The cigareties were seized after
North Vancouver RCMP officers
saw Ghodrat helping a man load
cigarettes into a cer.

A box, police said, was marked
“not for sale in Canada.” .

The man was pulled over and
told police he had bought the ciga-
rettes from Ghodrat for $3,600,
according to information presented
in court.

Ghodrat pleaded guilty to the
two government tax infractions and
a reduced charge of narcotic posses-
sion,

Ile was was fined $300 on the
drug charge, $5,000 on the federal
excise (ax infraction and $4 1.81755
on the provincial Tobacco Act
charge.

The cigarettes and Ghodrat’s car
were permanently taken from the
accused.

Smith said Ghodrat had lived in
North Vancouver for several years.

He said his client came to Canada
from fran as a refugee in 1987 and is
now a landed immigrant.

Ghodrat, who sat in court with a
Farsi interpreter by his side, was
described by his lawyer as being
self-employed.

Meanwhile Paradis gave Ghodrat
until March 30, 1996, to pay the
fines,

The judge said he didn’t want the
lime {o pay them to be too comfort-
able for the accused.

Straith had asked that the fines
be paid in six to nine months, -

Smith had asked for 16 nunths
to pay.

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