The Chilliwack
Progress Friday
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Provincial playoff action in Chilliwack.
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City told to pay more for Irwin Block
■ N ESTING T IME
Court rules city paid too little for expropriation Greg Knill The Progress
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A heron brings a twig back to its nest at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve on Wednesday. For more on the reserve, see page 13. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Police crack massive drug pipeline More than $5 million in drugs, plus weapons seized in series of raids Eric Welsh The Progress
Irwin Block comes down in 2014. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS FILE
A seven month investigation into an alleged drug trafficking ring with Chilliwack connections has ended with several arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars in drugs. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia, the province’s top anti-gang police unit, carried out
the investigation. Starting in August of 2014, officers zeroed in on an alleged distribution network based out of an apartment in the 45600 block of Brett Avenue in Chilliwack. Police raided the apartment in November, arresting two suspects and seizing 10 kilograms of cocaine, a large cocaine press, drug-packing material and other items. The two men were released
and tracked until last month, when police moved in for a massive bust. On Feb. 26 the CFSEU-BC, with help from the RCMP’s Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team, raided several locations. The first search warrant was executed in the 45500 block of McIntosh Drive, which police believed was a stash house. The second was executed in the 8800 block of Nowell Street, where a suspect lived. No one was home at McIntosh Drive, but two people, a 23 year
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old man and 21 year old woman, were arrested at the Nowell Street address. Meanwhile, police also visited three storage lockers in Chilliwack. Two men, 22 and 24 years old, were arrested leaving one of the storage lockers. A 22 year old man was arrested arriving at one. The total street value of all of the drugs together, seized between November and February, is estimated to be $5,155,000. Continued: DRUGS/ p4
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Chilliwack taxpayers will pay an additional $220,000 for property at Five Corners that the City of Chilliwack expropriated two years ago. At the time, the city paid $600,000 for the Irwin Block – located at the corner of Young and Yale Roads – as part of its plan to rejuvenate the downtown. However, owner Xing Chen challenged that amount, saying the property was really worth $1.1 million. He also sought additional damages totaling more than $700,000. He took the city to court in October, and last week a decision was announced. Although Justice Margot Fleming ruled against Chen’s call for additional damages, and rejected his estimate of the property’s value, she said the city of Chilliwack’s estimate was also too low. Based on her analysis, Fleming said the property was worth $820,000. She ordered the city to pay the difference. Said Justice Fleming: “The plaintiff is entitled to an award of $220,000, being the difference between the expropriation payment previously made by the City and the market value of the property at the time of expropriation.” Chen had purchased the property for $720,00 in 2009 as an investment. It sat vacant and in disrepair until the