B.C. LEGISLATURE OFFICE RAIDED IN CONNECTION WITH DRUG CASE

Search warrants were aimed at two non-elected officials, police say

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Police raided the British Columbia
Legislature offices of two senior cabinet ministers after an organized-crime
probe turned up information of potential wrongdoing, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police said Monday.

"Sometimes in the course of a complex and lengthy police investigation,
other related and unrelated information surfaces suggesting possible
criminal activity," RCMP Sgt. John Ward told a news conference. "This was
the case with the RCMP and the Victoria police department investigation into
organized crime."

Police raided the legislature offices of B.C. Finance Minister Gary Collins
and Transportation Minister Judith Reid on Sunday.

Ward said the raid was based on information specifically related to an
organized-crime drug case, as well as unrelated information discovered as a
byproduct of the 20-month drug investigation that resulted in the arrests of
nine people last week.

He stressed the search warrants executed at the legislature were aimed at
two non-elected officials and did not involve any elected provincial
politicians. No arrests have been made nor charges filed, he said.

"I want to make it clear it's not a political investigation," said Ward.

Collins, vacationing in Hawaii, said that was his understanding as well.

"This to my knowledge has nothing to do with anything that would relate to
my role, and I think the RCMP has made that clear," he said.

Reid, vacationing in San Francisco, said she was surprised by the raid and
that her office was cooperating with police.

Additional searches

Ward said that in addition to the Sunday morning search at the Legislature,
a search warrant was executed at the home of one of the non-elected
officials.

RCMP also executed search warrants at the home offices of two people living
in Vancouver and at the office of a company doing business in Vancouver and
Victoria, he said.

At a separate news conference in Victoria, city Police Chief Paul
Battershill said six locations were searched in that city, including an
accounting firm and the office of a consultant.

The warrants were sealed by court order.

Police did not identify the ministerial staffers whose offices were
searched.

Rise in organized crime

Ward turned aside any questions about how the material police seized Sunday
or the ministerial assistants were related to the larger investigation.

"I can say that in general, the spread of organized crime just in the past
two years has been like a cancer on the social and economic well-being of
all British Columbians," said Ward. "Today, the value of the illegal
marijuana trade alone is estimated to be worth in excess of $6 billion.

"We are seeing major increases in organized-crime related murders, beatings,
extortion, money laundering and other activity which touches many innocent
lives."

Ward said because of the huge revenues generated by the illicit drug trade
it "shouldn't surprise anyone that many people are susceptible to being
corrupted."

Police followed strict procedures for handling Legislature material and
asked permission from the legislative speaker before executing the warrants,
he said.

Ward said police have made nine arrests in the last week in connection with
the larger drug investigation, including three in Toronto and six in
Vancouver and Victoria.

The arrests were in connection with British Columbia-grown marijuana being
sold in the United States in exchange for cocaine sold to people across
Canada.

Six plainclothes RCMP officers turned up at the ornate Legislature building
Sunday, assisted by uniformed Victoria police.

Investigators spent two hours at the legislature and left with a van loaded
with boxes of files.

Geoff Gaul, a spokesman for the criminal justice branch of the Attorney
General's Ministry, said Sunday that a Vancouver lawyer, William Berardino,
had been appointed as a special prosecutor to decide whether criminal
charges will be filed once the investigation is completed.