21 MILLION ECSTASY DOSES SEIZED IN POLICE 'COUP'

Three Lower Mainland Men Face Charges After Record Port Seizure Linked
To Toronto, China

The discovery of 66 jugs filled with a yellow liquid led to the first
local seizure of an imported controlled substance used to make ecstasy.

Police are calling the discovery of MDP2P in soy sauce jugs on a cargo
ship from Shenzhen, China, a major coup.

The jugs contained enough MDP2P to make 21.2 million doses of the
party drug.

The discovery triggered an RCMP investigation that shattered an
organized criminal plot and led to six raids where drugs and $800,000
was seized.

"A seizure of this type of chemical -- taking this off the streets --
is a huge, huge coup," said Sgt. Dave Goddard of the Vancouver RCMP
drug section.

The seizure was nearly 10 times larger than a record 2003 seizure in
which police found 2.6 million doses of ecstasy in a container of
potato starch from the Netherlands.

Daniela Evans of the Canada Border Services Agency said the amount of
liquid precursor seized was enough for criminals to manufacture 21.2
million doses.

The chemical arrived in Delta Port on July 21 on a ship that was meant
to have 450 cartons of rice noodles and 400 cartons of soy sauce.

But when it was discovered that the jugs contained a total of 1,800
kilograms of the precursor substance, RCMP were immediately contacted
to place the shipment under surveillance.

What followed was a month-long investigation in which RCMP tracked the
delivery of MDP2P to a Vancouver storage facility.

The suspects who picked up the substance were involved in a multi-drug
smuggling operation between Vancouver and Toronto.

A joint investigation between RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, the
Combined Special Forces Enforcement Unit and Health Canada resulted in
six seizures of cash and illegal drugs from various locations in the
Lower Mainland and Toronto between Aug. 14 and Aug. 20.

In total, $730,280 Cdn and $72,090 US in cash were seized as well as
650 cartons of cigarettes, 725 kg of marijuana, 71 kg of powdered
ecstasy and 12 kg of cocaine.

Li Sum Peter, 54, of Burnaby, Feng Go Fu, 38, of Richmond, and Tsang
Bryan King Chun, 20, of Vancouver, have been charged with conspiracy
to produce ecstasy. The men are expected to appear in Vancouver
Provincial Court today for a bail hearing.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant for a fourth suspect, Ma Bai Xiao, 30, of
Toronto, was also issued.

Li, who's well known to police for his involvement in organized crime,
was also charged with possession of ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana for
the purpose of trafficking.

Charges are also pending in relation to 600 kg of marijuana seized
Aug. 20 from a cargo rail shipment in Toronto.

Charges will be considered for the 650 cartons of cigarettes found in
a storage locker if they are found to be contraband.

Goddard said the investigation is ongoing and police are trying to
determine the link to China, where the MDP2P was loaded.

Evans wouldn't specify how the freighter came to the attention of
Canada Border Services Agency, except to say they review all shipment
documents well in advance of a vessel's arrival and use a combination
of a targeting system and sophisticated X-ray technology to detect
suspicious cargo.

Richard Laing of Health Canada's drug analysis services said MDP2P is
not commercially available and has very little industrial use. It
takes only one step to convert the material into the drug.