Adding new tools to help target organized crime

Press Release

April 1, 2026

VICTORIA –

Summary

Beginning Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the capacity of the Civil Forfeiture Office will expand to strengthen its analytical and investigative capacity, resulting in more funds being available for crime prevention and safety initiatives
This expansion, implemented at no cost to taxpayers, will enable the office to better conduct financial investigations into existing files referred from law enforcement agencies, and to proactively identify unexplained wealth
The Civil Forfeiture Office will increase the capacity of the Civil Forfeiture Grant program, which funds supports for victims, Indigenous-led healing, and local safety initiatives throughout B.C.

To help keep people and communities safe, the Province is expanding the Civil Forfeiture Office (CFO) to improve its ability to identify, freeze and secure the forfeiture of major assets hidden by criminal organizations.

“Over the past 20 years, the CFO has worked tirelessly to target criminal organizations, with British Columbia becoming a national and international leader in the use of innovative civil forfeiture tools,” said Nina Krieger, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “These changes will allow the CFO to better target the proceeds of crime to keep communities safe and ensure crime doesn’t pay.”

Legislative amendments will support the agency’s ability to conduct in-depth financial investigations into existing file referrals from law enforcement agencies and to seek out unexplained wealth. The changes will help ensure that organized criminals cannot profit from unlawful activity or use property to seriously harm others, for example, using a home as an instrument of crime to manufacture or sell illegal drugs.

The amendments fulfill Cullen Commission recommendation No. 99, which recommends that the office significantly expand its operational capacity by adding investigators and analysts capable of identifying and targeting unlawfully obtained assets and instruments of unlawful activity beyond those identified in the police file.

Changes to the Civil Forfeiture Office

Currently, civil forfeiture actions are informed by law enforcement referrals. The office reviews each referral to determine whether forfeiture proceedings should be commenced or whether the file referral should be declined, based on the available evidence and public-interest considerations.

Changes to the self-funded Civil Forfeiture Office will include:

An increase from 26 staff to as many as 48 over three years through the addition of up to 22 positions, including financial investigators and analysts.
The deployment of specialized investigation and litigation teams that operate in a major case-management framework consistent with best-in-practice financial agencies around the world.
A more streamlined and efficient organizational structure that focuses on financial investigations and expanding civil forfeiture litigation proceedings.
Additional staff to support the Civil Forfeiture Grant program, which reinvests recovered funds into B.C. communities.

Benefits of civil forfeiture

This expansion will also increase the capacity of the Civil Forfeiture Grant program, which funds supports for victims, Indigenous-led healing and local safety initiatives throughout B.C. Funds brought in through civil forfeiture are reinvested into programs that help keep communities safer. These changes are projected to increase net recoveries.

Organized crime and money-laundering structures are becoming more sophisticated and more harmful to communities. This expansion equips the Civil Forfeiture Office with the expertise and systems needed to effectively disrupt criminal organizations and seize the proceeds of unlawful activity.

Since its inception, the Civil Forfeiture Office has recovered more than $221 million in unlawfully acquired assets.

Quick Facts:

The Civil Forfeiture Office’s operations are entirely funded by proceeds from forfeiture actions.
All remaining proceeds are distributed to people and communities through crime prevention, community safety and crime victim-support services.
More than $93 million has been invested in crime prevention and community-safety grants, including grants to police for specialized training and equipment and $1.7 million in compensation for victims.
Grants support crime prevention, restorative justice, gender-based violence supports, anti-hate Indigenous-led healing initiatives and Child and Youth Advocacy Centres.

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