Did organized criminals breach the Vancouver police property office? Court docs reveal VPD investigation

CBC News has learned Vancouver police are investigating whether someone with access to the force's property office colluded with organized criminals to tamper with key evidence in a high-profile murder case.

Dubbed "Project Loyalty," the investigation was launched in 2022 after the alarming courtroom discovery that two Blackberry devices seized in connection with a 2012 execution-style murder in a crowded downtown Vancouver restaurant had been swapped for so-called "imposter phones."

Police have reviewed three months-worth of motion-activated video recordings from the property office, obtained phone records for a handful of VPD staff, obtained eight search warrants and conducted polygraphed interviews with civilian property custodians.

Although Project Loyalty chief investigator Sgt. Chatinder Thiara says no sworn or civilian member of the VPD has been implicated, he claimed in a B.C. Supreme Court affidavit sworn in January 2025 that whoever carried out the "scheme" likely had "assistance from within the VPD property office."

"In my opinion, the most viable theory is that the replacement of the seized phones with the imposter phones occurred in the VPD property office," Thiara says in a sworn affidavit.

"It is my belief as the primary investigator that one or more persons worked in concert, across jurisdictions, to commit the offence(s) under investigation. Project Loyalty has identified no targets or suspects, although we cannot rule out the involvement of any of the accused or their associates."

Project Loyalty's existence surfaced last year during pre-trial hearings for Dean Wiwchar, the hitman who ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill gangster Sandip Duhre.

The proceedings had been covered by a publication ban which ended with Wiwchar's sentencing to 20 years in prison last December.

CBC News applied to court to obtain copies of Thiara's two affidavits as well as access to five days of arguments centred around an application filed by Wiwchar, seeking information about the investigation, which he believed at the time could help his defence.

In a 2025 ruling allowing Wiwchar limited access to Project Loyalty search warrant material, Justice Kathleen Ker said that if correct, Thiara's theory of the case would have "exceedingly serious ramifications for the integrity of the VPD property office."

The "unprecedented" situation led to courtroom submissions in which a contract killer lectured police on what he claimed was corruption.

"You need to stay the proceedings, not just because of the law, but to set an example to set the right precedent so that just doesn't happen again," Wiwchar told Ker at one point.

"Because if the cop's still in the building — it's going to happen."

In a statement to CBC News Tuesday, a VPD spokesperson said the investigation remains open.