Who owns BC properties linked to Canada’s largest illicit drug lab?

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The large rural Falkland property where police found Canada’s largest illicit drug lab is owned by an Abbotsford electrician, according to property records.

Michael Driehuyzen bought the 163-acre property on Hoath Road in May 2007 for $655,000, Land Title and B.C. Assessment documents show. The property, which is within the Agricultural Land Reserve, is currently assessed at $928,000.

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Initially Driehuyzen listed 5011 Hoath Road as his address, but more recent assessment documents have him living on another farm property on Downes Road in Abbotsford owned by a Kamloops chicken company.

Last week, the RCMP’s federal and serious organized crime section announced officers had dismantled the unprecedented fentanyl and methamphetamine “super lab,” housed in an outbuilding on Driehuyzen’s property.

Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said that enough finished fentanyl and precursor chemicals were found to produce 95 million doses of the toxic drug. And tonnes of other chemicals used to make methamphetamine were also at the site.

So far, only Surrey resident Gaganpreet Randhawa has been charged in the investigation, though more arrests are expected. He remains in custody with a court appearance scheduled for Nov. 14.

Driehuyzen is not facing any criminal charges in connection with the drug lab. He could not be reached for comment.

His lawyer in an unrelated ICBC civil case did not respond to a Postmedia request for comment.

Postmedia has learned that evidence linked to slain Independent Soldiers gangster Donald Lyons was found at the Hoath Road property.

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Lyons, who was shot to death in the driveway of his home near Princeton, had a long history of drug trafficking and other crimes.

The 51-year-old was closely associated to senior members of the Wolfpack gang alliance, believed to have been operating the Hoath Road lab to produce drugs for the domestic market and for export.

Lyon’s truck was found in September at an Enderby property where police seized 30,000 kilograms of precursor chemicals. Teboul said last week that the Enderby property on Crossridge Road is connected to the Falkland lab.

Whether Lyon was killed because of his role in the synthetic drug operation has not been disclosed by police. No one has been charged in the murder. Nor has a suspect been identified publicly.

The ownership of the Enderby property is convoluted.

Land title documents show the 2.6-hectare property was purchased in May 2023 by 2735152 Ontario Inc. for $1 million. The company’s Ottawa address listed on the B.C. Assessment document houses a Mexican restaurant.

A worker at the restaurant told Postmedia this week that they have never heard of the company, or Osman Ghazie, who is listed as president, secretary and treasurer on the company’s Ontario corporate records. He could not be reached for comment.

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Postmedia contacted the office of the B.C. lawyer who did the paperwork for the May 2023 sale, but did not hear back. And Postmedia reached out to two Ontario-based mortgage holders for the Enderby property, but got no response.

Staff Sgt. Derek Westwick, of the RCMP’s clandestine laboratory enforcement and response team, recently told Postmedia that lab operators often rent properties they use to produce synthetic drugs without the knowledge of property owners.

Teboul said that so far, the cleanup of the Falkland super lab has cost close to $1 million. The lab has links to transnational organized criminals working with B.C.-based gangs, he said, without identifying any groups.

For the first time in western Canada, investigators found the specific methamphetamine precursors used by Mexican cartels to make what’s known as the P2P meth formula, he said.

Teboul also said most of the precursors chemicals — the majority of which are unregulated in Canada — are brought in from China. 

The RCMP has so far not said where they believe the methamphetamine and fentanyl being produced was being sent.

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Postmedia recently investigated the increasing amount of methamphetamine being smuggled out of Canada through the Port of Vancouver, largely destined for the lucrative market of Australia.

About 10 tonnes of outbound methamphetamine has been intercepted in B.C. by the Canada Border Services Agency since the beginning of 2023. About 310 kilograms of meth that was ready for export was seized as part of the Falkland lab investigation.

kbolan@postmedia.com

X.com/kbolan

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