NO CHARGES YET IN FISHBOAT BUST

Police say no charges have been laid against the captain and four crew
members of a Canadian fishboat caught last month carrying nearly two tonnes
of cocaine in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

"There have been no charges, that is all I can say," said RCMP spokesman
Cpl. Grant Learned.

The vessel was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to Port Angeles,
Wash.

Police sources in Vancouver say the case will eventually ripple throughout
the drug underworld and that the Organized Crime Agency was intimately
involved in the bust.

While police were being careful not to say outright that there are Hells
Angels connections, Learned did say: "Very few criminal organization have
the capability of amassing and moving this quantity of product."

The fishboat was owned by Philip John Stirling, busted with seven others in
a similar but much smaller drug-smuggling operation in 1989 and sentenced to
five years for his role. He was arrested again on Jan. 2, 1999, in
connection with the seizure of three kilos of pot in Vancouver Island
community of Metchosin, where he lives. Those charges were later stayed.