ECSTASY BUST IS EVIDENCE OF SHIFT IN DRUG TRADE

Cheap to Make and Easy to Hide, the Stimulant Is Gaining on 'B.C. Bud'
Marijuana As the Drug of Choice for Cross-Border Smugglers

PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- It would have been pretty funny if it hadn't
been so serious.

On Oct. 20, four guys smuggling drugs from B.C. were having trouble
pulling their boat ashore -- so much trouble that their truck and
trailer started to slide into the water instead. That's when U.S.
undercover cops who were watching them decided to mosey on over and help.

But instead of getting help, the four men were busted. Prior to their
arrest, three of the men were on shore waiting for the boat's captain
to arrive at the Freshwater Bay boat launch west of Port Angeles on
Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

What the American authorities found was a multi-million-dollar cargo
of ecstasy -- evidence of a major shift in the drug trade between
B.C. and the U.S.

Long used to intercepting shipments of B.C.-grown marijuana, American
authorities say they are now finding more and more ecstasy flowing
south into Washington.

The change has been dramatic, says Roy Hoffman, assistant special
agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at
Blaine, Wash. "It's unprecedented."

Authorities say the drug, a stimulant, is being manufactured in the
Lower Mainland, where it is relatively easy to obtain ingredients
that are now hard to get in the U.S.

That's reflected in the statistics: 56 kilograms of ecstasy seized
entering western Washington from Canada in 2004, climbing to 288 in
2005 and 415 in 2006. And that's just the amount found at the
official border crossings. It doesn't include the stuff slipping in
through the San Juan Islands or across Juan de Fuca Strait by boat.

Police found just over 200 kilograms of ecstasy aboard Just Chillin'
in October's Freshwater Bay bust, an estimated 750,000 to one million
tablets -- some pink, some green -- wrapped in plastic and crammed
into five hockey bags and a suitcase. They believe the ecstasy came
from Vancouver and was bound for Los Angeles and Houston, where it
might fetch $20 per pill on the street.

"It has really grown in the past three years," says Mike Milne, a
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Seattle. "We're
seizing less marijuana and more ecstasy."

It's easy to see why. By weight, ecstasy is worth more than marijuana
and is easier to hide. In Port Angeles, half a kilo of "B.C. Bud"
marijuana wholesales for $2,500 US to $3,500 US, says Capt. Ron
Cameron of the Clallam County Sheriff's Office. The price rises as it
goes south, hitting up to $5,000 in Los Angeles.

Ecstasy can be manufactured for just 80 cents to $2 a pill, but sells
for much more. "The lowest I've ever seen it in bulk is $5 a pill,"
says Cameron. "It goes on the street for $20 to $25."

Cameron heads the Olympic Peninsula's multi-agency Narcotics
Enforcement Team. His area saw a surge in smuggling activity in 2004,
when authorities prosecuted a dozen dope-by-boat cases, arrested more
than 20 people and seized close to two tonnes of marijuana.

It's quieted down since then, the smugglers perhaps favouring
commercial trucks crossing from the Lower Mainland over fast boats
from Vancouver Island.

Clallam County cops still find evidence of continued smuggling -- a
stray bag of dope floating in the chuck, large quantities of money
stashed in the woods -- but not on the same scale as a couple of years ago.

The ecstasy bust threw everyone for a loop, Cameron said. "We've
never seen that before here."

Unlike in Canada, the so-called precursors to ecstasy or crystal meth
are strictly controlled in the U.S. For example, it's harder to buy
Sudafed or other cold medication containing pseudoephedrine, a key
meth ingredient.

"You can't go to a Wal-Mart or a local pharmacy without signing for
it anymore," says Cameron. Ditto for red phosphorus, an ingredient in
the manufacture of ecstasy.

Canada has now tightened its precursor laws, but not to the same
extent as in the U.S. The Asian gangs who manufacture ecstasy in B.C.
also sneak in ingredients from offshore. RCMP say the ecstasy made in
B.C. commonly contains methamphetamine.

The Americans acknowledge it's tough to keep tabs on marine
smugglers, whether they mix in with the recreational boaters in the
San Juan Islands or blast across the strait further west. The
Freshwater Bay boat launch, miles down a back road and out of sight
of houses, is just one of the secluded spots along the Olympic
Peninsula where the ubiquitous hockey bags can be unloaded. ("It's
always hockey bags," says Cameron. "I could outfit the Canucks.")

"It's not difficult for a smuggler to smuggle by water," says
Hoffman. "It's been with us since the days of Prohibition."