DRUG BUST NETS MASTERMIND, COPS ALLEGE

In Laurentians. Police Arrest At Least 22 As Part Of Joint
Investigation Operation Channel

A 35-year-old man from the Laurentians is to appear in court today to
face allegations that he was the mastermind behind several criminal
conspiracies where illicit drugs flowed across the Canada-U.S. border.

Andre Chartrand, of Prevost, was arrested yesterday as part of
Operation Channel, a joint police investigation led by the RCMP.

The Surete du Quebec and several municipal police forces north of
Montreal were also involved.

At least 21 others, mostly residents of municipalities north of
Montreal, were arrested along with Chartrand. Six other people were
being sought on warrants throughout the day. All face a variety of
charges, including conspiracy to import cocaine, producing marijuana
and trafficking in ecstasy.

"At first this investigation sought to dismantle a clandestine ecstasy
laboratory" in Ste. Adele, RCMP Sgt. Richard Nuckle said.

By May 2006, the investigation uncovered at least six other drug
trafficking conspiracies, he said.

Officers executing a search warrant at Chartrand's home seized 15
kilograms of pot.

"Mr. Chartrand was like a broker," Nuckle alleged. "He would take
orders from people either to arrange for transport or to distribute.

"Most of the time it was to facilitate the transport of the drugs to
the States, to Montreal or outside the province."

The RCMP had never heard of Chartrand before Operation Channel
began.

Some of Chartrand's associates supplied drugs to Montreal-area street
gangs, Nuckle said. But the accused is also alleged to have plotted to
send drugs like ecstacy into the U.S. and to smuggle cocaine into Canada.

Chartrand's 66-year-old father was included among those accused of
being part of a group that grew marijuana for the network.

The elder Chartrand is suspected of managing a marijuana grow
operation in Chertsey, about 80 kilometres north of Montreal.

Andre Chartrand is suspected of being involved in these drug-related
cases:

- - On Sept. 6, 2006, police seized more than 1,000 marijuana plants and
dismantled a grow operation in Clova, about 400 kilometres north of
Montreal.

- - In October 2006, police in New York seized 13 kilograms of cocaine
that two Quebec residents were preparing to smuggle into Canada.

Etienne Matuszewski, 22, and David Legault, 23, were arrested last
year in New York and have since pleaded guilty. They were sentenced
this year to three years and four years in prison,
respectively.

- - On Nov. 10, 2006, police seized 39 kilograms of marijuana and
arrested a man in a car headed for Valleyfield.

- - On Dec. 7, 2006, the RCMP seized 50,000 ecstacy pills at the St.
Jerome home of a 34-year-old man who was among those arrested
yesterday. The pills had an estimated street value of $500,000.

Six months later, the Mounties finally located and shut down the
ecstacy laboratory that touched off the investigation. It was hidden
inside a duplex near a cinema on Morin St. in Ste. Adele. Police
seized 100 kilograms of substances used to make ecstacy pills.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Jean Corbeil said a decision was made to shut down the
makeshift lab earlier than expected out of concern it was potentially
volatile and the chemicals being used would set off an explosion.