A Thunder Bay man has lost his years-long legal battle to recoup hidden stashes worth more than $1 million in cash that police seized from his home nearly 16 years ago.

On Monday, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a decision that ruled Marcel Breton, who was convicted of drug-trafficking charges but later acquitted, won’t be able to get his money back because it was determined to be “proceeds of crime.”

In December 2009, police executed a search warrant on Breton’s 17-acre property on Mapleward Road to search for a .22-calibre handgun, ammunition, spent casings, a fireman’s licence and registration, according to court documents.

What they found, instead, was much more grand.

Inside Breton’s home, police discovered bundles of cash totalling $15,000 in heating ducts of the living room

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