Notorious speeder had car seized, faces drugs and guns charges

Photo: Facebook

Kyle Gonek

A West Kelowna man who has repeatedly posted videos of himself appearing to be excessively speeding on public roads had his vehicle seized by the government, and now faces weapons and drug trafficking charges.

In 2019, Kyle Gonek posted Instagram videos and photos showing what appeared to be him travelling in excess of 280 km/h in his Cadillac. Gonek told Castanet in 2019 the photos were misleading, and that he was actually going less than 30 km/h. But after posting another video in August 2020, he said ICBC was taking his licence away.

"Good to know people love to talk about my life and are so interested in what I'm doing. F***ing rats," he told Castanet at the time. "People should worry about themselves. It was an empty highway."

But a few months prior to that, police had seized Gonek's vehicle during a raid on his home, following a month-and-a-half drug-trafficking investigation.

According to a civil forfeiture suit filed by the B.C. government in November 2020, police began surveilling Gonek in May of 2020, and officers observed him frequently travelling between his West Kelowna home on Deer Ridge Court and another home on Sundance Drive.

Police say they witnessed Gonek make 25 “short-duration meetings consistent with drug trafficking,” and determined he was using a travel trailer at his home as a “stash house.”

On June 16, 2020, police executed a search warrant at the Sundance Drive home, and found 128.7 grams of fentanyl, 118.5 grams of methamphetamine and 102.7 grams of crack cocaine, along with $7,590 in cash. A second raid of Gonek's property produced what police described as an “unknown amount of methamphetamine,” along with three shotguns a taser and “drug packaging material.”

“This investigation has direct ties to the drug trade within the City of Kelowna, even though the search warrants were executed in the City of West Kelowna,” Cpl. Jeff Carroll said in a press release at the time.

While police executed the search warrant on Gonek's home in June 2020, charges weren't laid against the man until November of this year. He now faces three charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking and four firearms-related charges.

Additionally, Gonek's vehicle and travel trailer were seized by police and sold. In February of this year, Master Shelagh Scarth of the B.C. Supreme Court ordered the resulting $25,689 from the sale be seized by the government, as the vehicles were determined to be both proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.

Now, Gonek is scheduled to make his first court appearance for the criminal charges on Dec. 7. None of the allegations against Gonek has been proven in criminal court. He remains out of custody.

He also faces an unrelated outstanding charge of mischief stemming from a May 1, 2021 incident in West Kelowna.