$1-MILLION OF NEW-LOOK ECSTASY SEIZED

7-Up, Batman Logos Used On Drugs

Whether smuggling their product into Canada in sealed cans of chicken soup
or stamping locally made pills with eye-catching Batman and 7-Up logos,
those in the business of selling the drug Ecstasy are proving themselves
inventive entrepreneurs.

In two separate cases within the past week, police in Toronto arrested
seven people and seized more than $1 million-worth of powdered and
tablet-form Ecstacy, also known as MDMA.

Toronto police uncovered the multicoloured, logo-stamped Ecstasy after a
five-month investigation by an undercover officer who infiltrated a
Scarborough-based drug ring.

Drug squad Inspector Bill Ellison likened the look of the pills, which also
bore 7-Up and other logos, to "Flintstones vitamins."

But he noted the tablets carried a covert punch designed to snag long-term
users: the Ecstasy is cut with highly addictive methamphetamine.

"The kids who are purchasing the Ecstasy have no idea that they are buying
meth," he said during a news conference yesterday.

Apart from the pill-filled baggies, police seized substantial quantities of
raw meth, powdered MDMA and caffeine extract, used to dilute and colour the
Ecstasy.

Police also recovered two pill presses and an electronic grinder, parts of
a manufacturing operation they say could produce more than 240,000 tablets
at a value of $6-million.

One man arrested on Thursday was found to have more than 11,000 Ecstasy
tablets, boasting a street value of between $200,000 and $250,000.

Police laid about 50 charges and arrested five Toronto people in connection
to the operation. Three of those arrested are non-Canadians in the country
illegally.

Meanwhile, border agents inspecting incoming international mail stumbled
upon nearly $1.5-million worth of high-grade Ecstacy powder hidden in cans
purporting to contain chicken noodle soup.

The tin cans, with commercially produced German-language labels and
professionally sealed, were found among other food items being shipped from
Germany to Canada, police said.

"They were sealed properly. If you looked at it, it looked just like any
ordinary can, other than it didn't slosh around because it was packed in
there pretty good," said Staff Sergeant William McAlpine, of the RCMP's
Greater Toronto Area Drug Section. "This was pretty professionally done."

The drugs were found late last month when officers with Canada Border
Services Agency stationed at the International Mail Processing Centre in
Toronto found 7.3 kilograms of high-grade Ecstasy in two separate shipments.

The RCMP were called in to investigate and this week executed a search
warrant in Toronto. A Toronto man and a Markham woman were arrested; a
loaded .32-caliber hand gun and approximately $20,000 in cash were also seized.