WARRANT AT MINISTERS' OFFICES TIED TO 20-MONTH DRUG PROBE

Spinoff Investigation Reached Premises Of Key Political Insiders

Police were looking specifically for information about illegal drugs
when they raided the offices of the aides to two high-profile cabinet
ministers at the B.C. legislature, CanWest News Service has learned.

Police had said earlier the raids last weekend were prompted by a
spinoff investigation of commercial crime based on information they
uncovered during a 20-month drug- and organized-crime probe.

They said it was the spinoff probe that resulted in a series of search
warrants being served Sunday, including several involving premises
occupied by key insiders with the federal and provincial Liberal parties.

But at least one of the warrants executed Sunday was specifically part
of the drug probe.

That would be either the warrant to search the legislature office of
Finance Minister Gary Collins' ministerial assistant Dave Basi, or the
warrant to search the office of Transportation Minister Judith Reid's
ministerial assistant Bob Virk.

Basi was fired from his job Monday, and Virk was suspended with
pay.

Police have released few details about the two investigations, and
will not explain how the worlds of politics, drugs and organized crime
allegedly intersected.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. John Ward would not comment Tuesday on the
Vancouver Sun's information about one of the two legislature searches
being linked directly to drugs. He said the fact that there is a ban
on publication of the material in the warrants prohibited him from
saying anything.

However, a statement issued Monday by the RCMP acknowledged that the
evidence uncovered in the legislature case "combined with information
directly linked to the organized crime/drug investigation resulted in
police securing warrants to search offices of non-elected staff
members at the B.C. legislature" and other locations.

A special prosecutor, William Berardino, has been assigned to the
legislature case.

Robert Prior, director of federal prosecutions for B.C., is handling
the drug case, which the RCMP says was launched in the spring of 2002
into the involvement of organized crime in the sale of B.C.-grown
marijuana in the U.S. in exchange for cocaine, which was then sold in
Canada.

Both Berardino and Prior will have standing in court Friday when media
outlets argue the bans on publication of the search warrants should be
overturned.

No charges have been laid in either case.

Government officials were surprised when told about the drug warrant,
but declined to comment.

On Monday, Premier Gordon Campbell maintained no government decisions
were influenced or compromised in any way by actions of Basi or Virk.

No elected officials have been implicated in the scandal.

The seven warrants issued Sunday include the two at the legislature,
the home offices of two people in the Lower Mainland, the offices of a
private company doing business in Victoria and Vancouver, and Basi's
home.

Basi, a prominent organizer for the provincial and federal Liberal
parties and a well-known supporter of Prime Minister Paul Martin,
issued a statement Monday saying he had done nothing wrong.

Police also searched the Victoria and Vancouver offices of Pilothouse
Public Affairs Group. One of the lobbying firm's two directors is Erik
Bornman, communications director for the B.C. chapter of the federal
Liberals and a longtime party activist.

Police also visited the Port Moody home office of Mark Marissen, the
husband of Deputy Premier Christy Clark. Marissen is an avid Martin
supporter, and is the prime minister's most powerful non-elected ally
in B.C.

Bornman said he needed more information before commenting. Marissen
said he was "an innocent recipient" of documents police considered
evidence, and co-operated with authorities by handing them over.

Twenty months after the start of the joint RCMP-Victoria police
drug/organized crime investigation, nine people were recently arrested
in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria but were released without charges.
Ward denied that was a sign the case was weak, or lacked any clear
suspects.

"I anticipate charges will be laid. When is another question," he
said. "When you deal with organized crime and the way it is spread
out, our investigations are lengthy, complex and we need to take the
time that's required to conduct them."

Ward would not comment directly on Prior being appointed to the drug
case. But he said that, generally speaking, a prosecutor could be
appointed to a file before charges are laid "if we were ready to lay
charges, or our investigation has got to the point where we want to
have Crown look at our case to see if anything needs shoring up."

Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill has confirmed the drug
investigation is connected to the suspension with pay on Dec. 15 of
Victoria police Const. Ravinder Dosanjh.

Prior did not return calls Tuesday.

In his administrative role as head of criminal prosecutions in B.C.
for the department of justice, Prior has been quoted often in recent
years commenting on high-profile federal cases.

That includes the 2001 trafficking-related conviction of three Hells
Angels, which police at the time called the first significant,
successful prosecution of members of the gang in recent B.C. history;
the 2000 arrest of Lai Changxing, the man alleged to be the central
figure in China's biggest corruption scandal; and nine Koreans charged
with five counts of people-smuggling after being arrested while trying
to flee Canadian waters Aug. 11, 1999.