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The following summarizes the nature of some of our enforcement actions:

• OCABC Vancouver Island officers, in partnership with the Provincial Gaming Audit and Investigation Office, investigated a number of social clubs. We are anticipating that charges for 6 individuals for keeping a common gaming house will be approved. Over $600,000 in proceeds of crime related to this operation have been identified as a result of these investigations; court action to recover the money is anticipated.
  
  
• We are nearing completion of a major investigation into Internet gambling; a recommendation for charges is being forwarded to Crown Counsel for approval.
  
  
• In a case initiated by Vancouver Police Department, our officers investigated a Vietnamese organized crime group that was involved in several commodities, the largest being the production and exportation of marihuana to the United States and United Kingdom. A total of 24 warrants were executed on this file.
  
  
• In the last year, investigators on Vancouver Island uncovered the largest psilocybin or "magic mushroom" cultivation operation ever discovered by Canadian law enforcement. In this case, magic mushrooms with an estimated street value of over $28,000 were seized. At full maturity, this crop would have been worth over $700,000.
  
  
• In collaboration with the RCMP Proceeds of Crime Unit in Regina, our investigators were involved in a take down of a large marihuana grow operation controlled by outlaw motorcycle gang members. In this case, several associates of outlaw motorcycle gangs moved to B.C. to produce marihuana for shipment to the US. We have also learned that they allegedly moved to BC because of the lenient sentencing in the Province.
  
  
• In yet another investigation, $600,000 of proceeds of crime were seized from a Vietnamese group who were involved in cultivation and trafficking of marihuana in the lower mainland.
  
  
• Collecting, analyzing and disseminating meaningful intelligence is essential to our fight against organized crime. To this end, we have developed a database to track the involvement of significant organized criminal groups in marihuana grow operations. Approximately thirty law enforcement agencies in the Pacific Northwest participate in sharing intelligence through this medium.
  
  
• Staff at our agency have also successfully demonstrated to the courts the threats to public safety caused by marihuana grow operations. We have done this by entering social impact statements as evidence in court to be used in sentencing. Sentences for first time offenders for cultivation has now been raised to one year in custody as a result of a British Columbia Court of Appeal decision.
  
  
• Our Technical Services section not only looks after the Agency’s needs but has assisted several municipal police departments on investigations involving murder, armed robbery, home invasions, witness protection, and attempted prison break.