Wife of murdered 'fruit importer' also faces drug allegations: documents

New details about B.C. man killed in Colombia Richard Yen Fat Chiu was investigated for trafficking drugs. Now, court documents allege his wife was involved in organized crime.

The spouse of a Vancouver man whose body was found burned a day into a trip to Colombia is facing allegations in court that she is involved in the illegal drug trade.

But Kimberly Chiu’s lawyers says she will continue to fight for the $315,000 seized as proceeds of crime by the province’s director of civil forfeiture, even as she and her family are left reeling from news of her husband’s death.

“I talked to Ms. Chui this morning. She’s pretty devastated and really upset. She’s got four young children at home and you can imagine how upset they would be at losing their father. The way he died was particularly upsetting to them,” her lawyer, Christopher S. Johnson, told CTV News.

Richard Yen Fat Chiu, 47, arrived in Colombia on June 19, and he left a hotel with four men in a red car with Venezuelan plates, according to newspaper La Opinion.

The newspaper says his body was discovered by police in San Cayetano, a village just outside the city of Cucuta on the Venezuelan border, still burning.

Chiu had identified himself as an exporter of fruit and vegetables – and did have a business doing that, said Johnson.

“He once brought a case of mangos to my office. That seemed to have all the hallmarks of a legitimate business,” he said.

Chiu was convicted in 2002 in Massachusetts for conspiracy to distribute and possess heroin, civil forfeiture documents say.

In 2015, he was investigated in the RCMP’s project E-Pirate as a customer of an alleged underground bank in Richmond that authorities say laundered hundreds of millions of dollars through a scheme involving B.C. casinos.

He was never charged, and charges were also dropped against the principals of Silver International. The company and its principals are now being pursued in civil court.

Chiu’s wife, Kimberly, was also being watched by police in the E-Pirate operation, documents show.

She was also a target in surveillance by the Vancouver police in Sept. 5, 2017, as officers watched an exchange of bags between Kimberly Chiu and a “known gang associate and street level drug trafficker,” as she drove her husband’s Audi Q7, court documents say.

Officers pulled over the Audi near Puget Drive to find $300,000 in “six clear plastic vacuum-sealed bags marked ‘50,000’ and each containing bundles of uniforms stacks of $20 and $100 bills bound with elastics,” the director of civil forfeiture alleged.

Another $15,000 was in the car, bundled with elastic bags but not vacuum-sealed, the documents say.

Tests of the money revealed “high concentrations of cocaine residue,” the documents claim.

In her response, Kimberly Chiu “denies any involvement in ‘Asian Organized Crime’ and says the tests of the money weren’t conclusive. She also alleged her charter rights were breached in the search of the vehicle.

A Vancouver police spokesperson said he would make inquiries about the case.

Global Affairs Canada, in a statement, said officials in Bogota, Colombia, are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information.

“We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen who has died in Colombia. Consular services are being provided to the victim’s family,” the statement said.