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11 July 2020 14: 24
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Guilty of having assisted in the production of cannabis, he finds his equipment
Isabelle Mathieu
The Sun
The Crown has failed to seize it as offence-related property the majority of the equipment seized at the home of a horticultural company guilty of having helped its customers to produce cannabis.
Dany Belley, owner of the shops Hydrobec and Hydro Rive-Sud, specialized in the equipment for the hydroponic production, will therefore furnish a sum of a little over$ 140,000 seized by police as proceeds of crime. Only 28 494$ will be actually transferred to the Attorney general of Quebec.
Belley and businesses have been convicted after a trial of having assisted in the production of cannabis is illegal under their guidance and material.
From the end of November 2013 in the month of may 2014, the Sûreté du Québec has made a number of searches which have led to the discovery of 32 plantations of cannabis in the region of Quebec. The producers have told the police and later at the trial be supplied with equipment and materials in Hydrobec or Hydro South Shore, two shops where the employees and the owner could advise them to improve their crops.
The police raided two shops and seized several pieces of equipment, which would eventually be sold. It is the profit of this sale, which is the sum that would enter the Attorney general of Québec, as offence-related property.
By opposing the confiscation, Dany Belley, the taxpayer argued that its equipment and fertilizers could be used to any kind of culture. He pointed out that his businesses had a number of institutional clients, including the University of Laval.
Dany Belley knew that some customers were growing cannabis. He added that several of them could have a Health Canada authorization to grow cannabis for medicinal purposes.
After analysis, the judge Jean Asselin of the Court of Quebec is in agreement with the fact that the material and equipment sold in the two shops “are not necessarily property illegitimate and can be used for the production of legitimate goods”.
Only the material that the producers of cannabis were said to have bought during the trial and that purchased by the undercover agents was thus seized as offence-related property.
