ECSTASY LAB WAS AMONG THE BIGGEST: WITNESS

RCMP Expert Testifies in Sentencing Hearing of Ottawa Drug-Maker

An RCMP drug expert testified yesterday that a drug-producing lab in
Ottawa uncovered by police in 2003 was at the time one of the biggest
operations in the country.

RCMP Sgt. Doug Culver said the drug lab operating out of a two-storey
warehouse on Canotek Road was "one of the most sophisticated that we
had encountered in Canada."

In January 2003, Ottawa police found thousands of pills, ecstasy
powder and drug-making apparatus at the warehouse following an
intensive surveillance of the unit that had begun in October 2002.

Sgt. Culver said ecstasy production in Canada has increased
substantially since and police forces have uncovered much larger
illicit operations.

He said that in 2005 there were 51 clandestine drug-making labs
operating in Canada, more than there had ever been.

Sgt. Culver testified yesterday in a sentencing hearing of Minh Ha, an
Ottawa man who has pleaded guilty to producing the designer drug
ecstasy out of a warehouse in an industrial park near Montreal Road
and the Queensway.

When police raided the warehouse unit and Mr. Ha's Rochester Street
home, they found 4,500 finished pills, 600 grams of ecstasy powder and
roughly $7,500 in cash.

According to government scientists who testified earlier in the trial,
Mr. Ha had enough chemical ingredients to produce more than a million
pills of the drug and there were estimates that it could have produced
about $20 million in revenue.

Sgt. Culver said the startup costs of an ecstasy lab can be quite high
in terms of the equipment and chemicals needed, but once production
begins the costs are lower and can range from 50 cents to a dollar per
tablet.

Generally, the street value of an 80 to 120 milligram tablet -- which
produces an euphoric high for the users -- can range from $20 to $30,
he said.

The trial continues July 4.