ACCUSED DRUG TRAFFICKER GETS $4-MILLION BAIL

An alleged international drug trafficker who has been fighting
extradition to the U.S. for nearly 10 years has been released on
$4-million bail while he seeks leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of
Canada.

Ranjit Singh Cheema, who put up the bail through 19 sureties from
relatives and friends, is wanted in the U.S. on charges, filed in
February 1998, that he conspired to import and traffic in heroin and
hashish.

American authorities say Cheema intended to trade with
California-based Colombian drug-traffickers 200 kilograms of heroin
from Pakistan for 800 kilograms of cocaine.

Cheema allegedly planned to bring the cocaine to B.C. and is said to
have made payments of $1 million toward the purchase of the heroin,
which he planned to sell for $12 million to $14 million in cocaine.

In June, the B.C. Court of Appeal denied his appeal of an extradition
order and he was taken into custody.

Noting that it was "significant" that Cheema had previously been on
$1-million bail for more than nine years, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice
Jo-Ann Prowse found in early November that his continued detention "is
not necessary in the public interest in all of the
circumstances."

Cheema was released on a number of conditions, including that he
reside at his parents' Vancouver home and that he not have any contact
with other people named in the drug indictment. He must also surrender
his passport and any other travel documents.

His lawyer, Richard Peck, said he expects it could be a "couple of
months" before the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the appeal.