Man forfeits $500K in cold, hard cash smuggled in truck full of ice cream

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This article was published 17/07/2018 (2108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than a half-million dollars seized from a semi-truck hauling ice cream is in provincial coffers, and Manitoba has now taken ownership of the truck itself.

This week, provincial court Judge Brent Stewart ordered 53-year-old Marian Budica to give up his 2007 Kenworth tractor trailer to a criminal-property fund used to pay for programs, services and equipment for police and victims of crime.

Budica had already forfeited $510,895 in cash RCMP officers found bagged up in the truck, but court heard few details about where the money came from, and how it ended up in a shipment of ice cream trucking through rural Manitoba two years ago.

Pleading guilty to one count of possession of property obtained by crime, Budica admitted the money was from illegal gambling and he had been asked to transport it. He offered no explanation when apologizing to the judge, and avoided jail time with a conditional sentence of two years less a day he’ll serve in his home.

The federal Crown prosecutor and defence lawyer Danny Gunn recommended the sentence to the judge, agreeing Budica was only a courier and not a mastermind for money smuggling.

“I’m sorry that I made the mistake, but that is nothing compared to I let my family down,” said Budica, who was born in Romania and ran local trucking company Bella-Enterprises Ltd. with his wife.

Manitoba RCMP officers found a total of $522,895 when they searched Budica’s truck in the Rural Municipality of Cartier on July 25, 2016, expecting to find smuggled cigarettes. Budica had been hauling the ice cream from Toronto and was headed to B.C.

Police found a few cartons of cigarettes and Budica was arrested under the Manitoba Tobacco Tax Act while officers continued to search the truck.

Although Crown and defence lawyers reached a plea bargain based on the cash being tied to gambling, police believed the money was linked to drug trafficking or smuggling unmarked cigarettes, according to a statement of claim filed in court under Manitoba’s Criminal Property Forfeiture Act.

The claim, which ended with Budica agreeing to forfeit the majority of the cash on March 30, 2017, says police found 66 bundles of cash that had been split up into shopping bags and a shoe box. Some of the bags had been marked with different words, including “Blondi,” “Dragon,” “DD,” “Blue Eyes,” and “Alby.”

Cash and other property that’s considered to be obtained by crime can be seized and ordered forfeited even if there’s been no criminal conviction in court. It goes into a fund that’s typically distributed back to police services and programs for victims of crime.

Stewart ordered this week the remaining $12,000 that wasn’t forfeited last year go to Budica’s lawyer.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay