FRESH DETAILS ABOUT RAID ON LEGISLATURE

The police investigation that led to raids on the B.C. legislature last
year is focussed on two groups of suspected drug dealers, a federal
prosecutor revealed yesterday in a brief summary of the case.

The first group -- up to seven people living in Victoria, the Vancouver
area and Toronto -- was moving kilograms of cocaine in the Lower Mainland
and between B.C. and Toronto, RCMP believe.

"The RCMP has successfully seized cocaine and/or money from some members of
this group," says the seven-paragraph summary prepared by prosecutor Peter
Hogg.

The second group of three or more people was involved in trafficking
marijuana in Victoria and the Vancouver area.

"The RCMP alleges offences of trafficking in marijuana, conspiracy to
traffic in marijuana and possession of the proceeds of crime in relation to
these offences," says the summary.

"None of the persons suspected of being involved in either the cocaine or
the marijuana offences are elected officials," says the summary. "Nor is it
alleged that drug trafficking was taking place at the legislature."

It was the fifth time in three months that media lawyers were thwarted in
their efforts to convince a B.C. Supreme Court judge to unseal information
used to obtain search warrants in the affair.

But Hogg said outside court that the summary "is a fair summary of the
information at this stage that we can legally disclose."

A month ago, a special prosecutor looking into allegations of
influence-peddling connected to the drug case -- perhaps involving the
impending sale of B.C. Rail to CN Rail -- released a summary that had more
specifics.