OPIUM SEIZURES INDICATE GROWING DEMAND, POLICE SAY

Shipments Found Hidden in Luggage From Turkey, Iran

Customs officers at Vancouver International Airport have seized more
opium in the past five weeks than they did in all of 2002 and police
say the busts indicate a growing demand for the narcotic in British
Columbia.

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency customs officers have seized a total
of 19 kilograms of the drug in four shipments since Oct. 1. The 22
opium seizures made in B.C. and the Yukon in 2002 netted officers a
total of 15.5 kilograms, said CCRA spokeswoman Lara Brodie.

The first opium cache was found in a shipment from Turkey containing a
suitcase and some clothing. Documentation indicated the shipper
declared the items in the shipment as gifts. Customs officers noticed
the suitcase was unusually heavy and when they peeled back the inside
lining of the suitcase, they found five kilograms of plastic-wrapped
opium.

The next day customs officers inspected another suitcase sent from
Turkey and discovered 7.5 kilograms of the drug stashed in the
suitcase's false sides.

The third seizure occurred Oct. 29 when customs officers at YVR
discovered opium hidden inside decorative pictures in shipments of
clothing and melons, again from Turkey. Officers found more opium
hidden in decorative pictures on Nov. 3. That shipment of clothing and
melons originated in Iran. A total of seven kilograms of the drug was
recovered in the two seizures.

Arrests have been made, although nobody at the RCMP Vancouver Airport
Border Integrity Unit was available for comment on Friday.

However, Corporal Scott Rintoul of the RCMP's drug section said the
seizures clearly indicate a growing demand for the opiate.

"Obviously it's gaining in popularity, which I think is a very
disturbing fact," Rintoul said.

Opium, which is a thick black tar-like substance, is made from poppy
sap. It can be refined into heroin, but it can also be smoked. Its
effects are similar, although not as powerful, as heroin.

Rintoul said opium, which has a long history in British Columbia, is
often the drug of choice for Asian and Persian drug users. Rintoul
said there is most likely some kind of organized crime component to
the shipments.

"I would find great difficulty saying there's not some organized crime
link," he said. Police do not believe the opium that makes it past law
enforcement in B.C. is being refined or altered to create more
powerful drugs.

"That's all we need -- another drug people are using and abusing," he
noted.

Despite the recent seizures, opium has yet to emerge as a popular drug
on the streets of Vancouver.

"I'm not aware in Vancouver that we deal with opium much at all," said
Vancouver police Constable Sarah Bloor. "It's not something that we
would commonly see here in Vancouver."

Opium "dens," places where users could smoke the drug, were common in
Vancouver and Victoria Chinatowns from the 1880s to the early 1900s.
Opium was declared illegal in Canada in 1908.