HIGH POPULARITY: ECSTASY IS TOP DRUG SEIZED AT AIRPORTS

The illicit drug ecstasy has achieved such popularity in Montreal it is now
the narcotic most often seized at the city's major airports, the Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency reports.

The methamphetamine represents 80 per cent of the estimated value of drugs
seized so far this year at either Dorval or Mirabel, Mario D'Almeida, a
customs superintendent, said yesterday. That includes two large seizures of
ecstasy made last week.

So far this year, customs officials at the airports have intercepted more
than $10 million worth of illicit drugs, through 137 seizures. Five
seizures of ecstasy account for $8 million. Cocaine ranks a distant second
at $1 million.

The more significant of the two recent shipments seized was intercepted at
Dorval on Thursday last week.

Thirty-two kilos, or 114,000 tablets (worth an estimated $4 million) were
discovered in wax-coated cylinders disguised as bug-repellent garden
candles that arrived on a flight from England via a courier firm. It was
the biggest seizure this year at either airport.

A customs inspector found it strange that the products did not smell like
bug repellent. An ion spectrometer confirmed that the shipment contained
the methamphetamine.

No arrests have been made.

Another 20,000 tablets of the drug were found at Mirabel on Aug. 12 in the
false bottom of a suitcase.

A 54-year-old Frenchman carrying the suitcase on a flight from Belgium was
charged in Saint-Jerome. RCMP Constable Aldo Giannone said he could not
discuss the case.

Stefan Sickel, 42, arrested at Dorval on May 4 last year with 3 kilos of
ecstasy in the false bottom of his suitcase, was recently deported to
Germany. He told the RCMP he brought the drugs to Montreal as part of a
deal in which he was to receive $4,000 if he could deliver the drugs to a
hotel in Longueuil. He claimed he needed money to treat a serious illness.

After serving part of a 34-month sentence in a Laval penitentiary, Sickel
was ordered out of Canada in June.