Province sues to keep nearly $1M seized in traffic stop outside Brandon

WINNIPEG — The RCMP constable could see that Alireza Haghgoo was nervous.

The 22-year-old, seated as a passenger in a rental Nissan SUV the Mountie pulled over for speeding outside Brandon in late July, was breathing heavily and tapping his foot constantly, as the carotid artery on his neck visibly pumped blood.

He had good reason to be jumpy — considering Mounties found nearly $1 million in cash that justice officials allege is drug money in the car he and Ahmad Shahpoor Ahmadi, 44, were driving from Calgary to Toronto.

The province’s director of criminal property forfeiture filed a lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench last week in an attempt to keep the more-than-$956,000 in cash seized during the traffic stop on July 31 as well as a more than $70,000 watch.

Haghgoo and Ahmadi, who both normally reside in southern Ontario, are charged with possession of property obtained by crime for the purpose of drug trafficking and remain before the court. Ahmadi was granted bail in August, while Haghgoo was denied release.

It was just before 9 p.m. that day, when the RCMP officer on traffic duty in an unmarked cruiser spotted the rental Nissan speeding on the Trans-Canada Highway, headed east toward Brandon.

Ahmadi, who was in the driver’s seat, handed the officer a rental agreement that showed the vehicle had been picked up in Calgary that same day and was to be returned to a location in the Greater Toronto Area on Aug. 4, the court filing says.

The officer questioned the men about their trip between Calgary and Toronto, and Haghgoo first claimed they were “just exploring,” despite the fact both had flown into Calgary that same morning. He quickly changed his story to claim they were doing “random work” in the Alberta city, the court papers say.

“He then changed his story again and said they were doing ‘jewelry and watches,’” the court filing claims.

The officer, in a police report filed with the lawsuit, said the claim about “exploring” made no sense given they had arrived in Calgary earlier that day and the trip from that city to Brandon is about 13 hours by road.

“The occupants flew to Calgary this morning from Toronto and were already on their way back. I have never seen this before and I have conducted thousands of traffic stops over the course of my career,” the Mountie wrote in his report.

“The only plausible reason for this would be to pick up something illegal that you are unable to fly with or pick up a new vehicle, which they did not do.”

The Mountie ran computer checks on the two men and found that Haghgoo was out on bail on a robbery charge, and that just five weeks earlier, he had been stopped at the Edmonton airport with about $500,000 in cash in his carry-on baggage, according to the court filing.

Officials at the airport let him go after he claimed he did not like using banks and that he worked in the high-end jewelry and watch business.

The officer looked through the windows of the rental vehicle and saw two bags that contained “brick-shaped” packages and arrested the two men on drug-trafficking-related charges, before finding the cache of cash in the two bags. The bags had Apple air tags in them, which drug organizations use to keep track of their products, the filing says.

Ahmadi later claimed to the Mountie that he was just a limousine driver, that Haghgoo was a client of his in Toronto, and that Haghgoo asked him to fly to Calgary and drive him back to Toronto, with pay upon their return to the Ontario city.

Ahmadi told police he rented a vehicle at the Calgary airport and picked up Haghgoo at a home.

The younger man loaded some bags into the vehicle and they immediately left for Toronto.

The officer said it appeared the two men barely knew each other, which is common among drug couriers, the police report says.

The men remain before the court.

» Winnipeg Free Press