'HUGE' ECSTASY BUST AT BORDER TIED TO ASIAN ORGANIZED CRIME

Seizure 'Indicative Of Growing Problem,' Says Customs Official

A "huge" load of ecstasy pills seized at the Canada-U.S. border
highlights the growing role of B.C. organized crime in the drug's
production, say officials in both countries.

"It's huge," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Milne
said yesterday.

"It's one of the larger ones we've had.

"It's indicative of the growing problem we've had [with ecstasy
smuggling from B.C.] over the past two or three years. It's becoming
a very prevalent problem."

U.S. Customs officials X-rayed a truck trailer on Friday at Oroville,
Wash., and found 82.5 kilograms of ecstasy in the form of 262,000
pills hidden in packages stuffed into the walls of the trailer's
doors. The trailer was loaded with wood from a B.C. mill to make
wooden pallets and was bound for a company in California.

The B.C. woman driving the truck and her male passenger apparently
had no idea they were hauling illegal cargo and were released from
custody without charges, Milne said.

Police on both sides of the border are now investigating to determine
whether that California company was aware of the drugs in the trailer
and who on the Canadian side is responsible for making the pills.

Sgt. Scott Rintoul of the RCMP drug awareness section said B.C. has
more large-scale ecstasy production labs in operation than any other province.

Ecstasy production, Rintoul said, is a low-risk, high-gain venture
because the profits are substantial and the maximum penalty for
ecstasy production under Canadian law is just 10 years.

Rintoul said B.C.'s ecstasy industry is closely tied to Asian organized crime.

Ecstasy came to the attention of law enforcement in the mid-1990s
when the drug was primarily imported to B.C. from Europe. By the
early 2000's, RCMP were seeing massive quantities of the raw
precursors needed to make ecstasy coming into B.C. from Asia, Rintoul said.

In February, the United Nations identified Canada as a source country
for ecstasy entering the U.S.