CLUB DRUGS 'FLOURISHING': COPS

Police Alert Youngsters To Potential Security Risks At After-Hours Clubs In
Wake Of Shootout At Red Lite Club, Where Large Volumes Of Illegal
Substances Were Exposed.

Laval police say a drug market is thriving inside the Red Lite after-hours
club, and they are trying to control the problem.

Police found hundreds of tiny bags and thousands of pills littering the
floor inside the building as they continued to search the club and its
parking lot yesterday after a Monday morning shootout left seven people in
hospitals with gunshot wounds.

"Our undercover agents have been keeping an eye on the club for a while,"
said Chief Inspector Pierre Brien. "We know there is a flourishing drug
market inside: ecstasy, coke, PCP, LSD, speed and GHB, commonly known as
the date-rape drug."

Police interrogated and released four suspects linked to the Bo-Gars street
gang and found a gun late in the day believed to have been used in the
shootings, said spokesman Sgt. Andre St. Jacques.

No arrests were made yesterday, but police are monitoring the rise in
street-gang related activity, Brien said.

Laval's city council adopted a bylaw last December prohibiting the
operation of dance clubs between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m.

The owners of Red Lite have been fined three times for contravening the
bylaw. The club owners are contesting, and the matter is in municipal court.

The bylaw is relatively new and unique to Quebec municipalities, Brien
said. Laval has two known after-hour clubs, and there is no plan to fine
them each time they open, he said.

"Essentially, Laval police is testing new grounds with this bylaw."

Laval police also plan to begin information campaigns in area high schools
and CEGEPs to warn of the potential risks.

"Youngsters need to know what they are getting into, there is a sense that
because there is no alcohol that parents and kids feel there isn't a high
risk," said Brien. "I think yesterday's incidents prove these places
constitute a security risk and they are a good turf for gang activity."

The Red Lite club, which is located in an industrial sector in Laval's
Vimont district, is usually open Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 2 a.m.
and 11 a.m., but shuts by 9 a.m. on Monday.

The club is housed in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse, which is divided into
three separate rooms plus the entrance area where Monday's shootings took
place.

The club's owner declined requests to be interviewed, but the club's lawyer
and spokesman Michel Savonitto said the club is safe and should be open
again this weekend.

"I think Red Lite's clientele are safe and the proof of that is how things
went last night," Savonitto said. "The seven people that were hurt were the
two assailants and five of our security, the customers were never in danger."

Savonitto said it wasn't only luck that none of the 3,000 customers were
injured in the melee. In a media release, the clubs owners thanked the 20
security guards for their courage.

Meanwhile, Laval police don't plan to take any special measures, but will
continue to monitor the club, Brien said.