SMASHIN' PUMPKINS - AND DRUG RINGS

Nestled under a shipment of pumpkins, yams and sweet potatoes was
enough hash and dope to keep half of Hamilton high.

Instead of just seizing the drugs after a hi-tech gamma ray search
revealed their hiding place in the false bottom of a container, the
Canada Border Service Agency enlisted the help of Toronto Police for a
controlled delivery.

The result was Project Kalabaza -- Spanish for pumpkin -- that ended
with the arrest of the two suspects and the crimping off of a
potentially lucrative narcotics pipeline.

"This is the first time that we've been contacted to do a controlled
delivery that's started in Halifax," Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. John
Decourcey said. "Generally in the ports of entry they seize a lot of
drugs and that's where it ends."

The 626 kilos of hash, hash oil and marijuana -- worth an estimated
$19 million -- were discovered in a container shipped from Jamaica to
Halifax on July 22.

The drugs were removed surreptitiously, then CBSA and the Halifax RCMP
allowed the container to be collected and taken to the GTA.

Toronto Police then picked up the trail and followed the container as
it was trucked to Lynden, near Hamilton.

After watching the container get locked in a garage on Aug. 22, cops
arrested the driver. A second man was arrested two weeks ago.