HUGE DRUG BUSTS PROMPT WARNING OF ADDICT CRIMES

Major Heroin Seizures Affect Users In Victoria

Victoria police are warning citizens and businesses they may be targets
of more thefts and robberies in the wake of a huge heroin seizure by
Vancouver and Toronto police.

RCMP netted 156 kilograms of heroin and disrupted an international
Asian-based crime gang in two separate, massive busts in Vancouver and
Toronto in the past week.

The biggest seizure was in Vancouver, where police found 99 kilograms
of pure heroin concealed in a shipping container. In Toronto, drugs
were found concealed in plastic eggs among a shipment of preserved duck
eggs, a delicacy shipped regularly from Asia.

The big bust means the local heroin supply will likely tighten up,
pushing prices higher. When prices rise, crime increases as heroin
users do whatever it takes to get money to buy drugs.

``They are not going to drop their level of usage,'' said Sgt. Dan
Parker, of the Victoria police strike force, a multi-pronged effort to
crack down on a range of crimes, including drugs and property crimes.

``You could expect to see more property crimes taking place, more
thefts, maybe even more robberies. A lot of times we find that people
who do robberies are either high on drugs or are looking for money to
buy more drugs.''

Doctors can expect to see more patients showing up with ``ghostly
pains'' seeking painkillers, Parker said Tuesday. More people may be
selling their prescriptions to desperate heroin users.

``Any kind of painkiller is usually pretty popular with people who
can't get heroin.''

A point (one-tenth of a gram) of heroin is selling for $25 to $30, said
Parker, adding that some users spend up to $300 a day on their habit.
Although it's difficult to pinpoint numbers, he said there are hundreds
of users in Victoria.

There's an overlap among Vancouver and Victoria users because they
travel between the two centres.

Victoria police have noticed that local users seem to be getting
younger, with more 17 and 18 years old, and that more are arriving here
from Eastern Canada.

The Vancouver drug seizure was at a surburban warehouse.

Police said heroin was compressed into custom-made plastic boxes that
were hidden in hollow beams beneath a false bottom in a shipping
container from China.

``I think it's extremely sophisticated,'' said Cpl. Mike Dionee, who
demonstrated how the heroin was hidden at a news conference in
Vancouver on Tuesday.

The drugs would be undetectable by X-ray and the hole in the floor
giving access to the beams was sealed over with filler.

The Vancouver seizure kept three million single doses of heroin off the
streets of Canada, Staff Sgt. Chuck Doucette said.

Street value of a drug varies from city to city and with the amount in
circulation, making the dollar value of seizures hard to estimate
accurately.

Police in Toronto said the shipment seized there would provide 2.85
million individual doses, and estimated its street value in Toronto at
$142 million, $50 a dose.

The Vancouver shipment, though larger, was worth less -- $104 million
at Vancouver street prices of $35 a dose, police said.

But the flow never stops.

``Certainly if there's one like this, it's reasonable to assume there's
others,'' Doucette said.

``Let's just be thankful we got this one off the streets.''

Police believe the bust disrupted an international Asian-based criminal
ring that largely controls heroin on the streets of Canada.

The RCMP's proceeds-of-crime section is continuing an investigation and
expects property and money will be seized as well.

Police believed the massive shipment was destined for sale in the
Canadian market.

Toronto police say the drugs seized there were hidden in plastic eggs
among a shipment of preserved duck eggs.

``This shows you how (smugglers) will exploit every legitimate avenue
to get drugs into Canada,'' RCMP Supt. Ben Soave said Tuesday at a news
conference in Toronto.

Soave said he believes drugs have been shipped in replica eggs before.

Police displayed the plastic duck eggs, along with several suitcases
overflowing with $1.2 million in cash seized along with the drugs.

Officers had to crack 174,000 real duck eggs to find the 1,700 drug-
filled replicas, Soave said.

The narcotics had been sent by ship to Vancouver from China, then by
rail to Toronto.

Hundreds of people were probably behind an operation of this magnitude,
Soave said.

``It takes an organization with a great deal of sophistication, with a
huge international network, to put the whole shipment into a single
container,'' he said.

The Toronto operation, which had been under investigation for more than
a year, netted 57 kilograms of heroin as well as 17 kilograms of pills,
some of which were identified as the popular designer drug Ecstasy.

Mark Butler of Canada Customs said his agency had only seized nine
kilograms of heroin so far this year before last week's bust.

The Toronto shipment was discovered in an east-end warehouse using a
detector dog, he said.

``Was (the operation) ingenious? I don't think so,'' he said, adding
he'd also seen heroin hidden in hollowed-out fruit.

RCMP said the Toronto and Vancouver busts were separate investigations
and separate shipments, although some of the same people were involved.

Four Canadian citizens and three Hong Kong residents were arrested by
the Asian Organized Crime unit in Vancouver on Saturday at the end of a
20-month international investigation.

Their names were not released.

Charged in Toronto with importing and possession are Sui Ping Lee, 46,
Wei Hong Sun, 49, and Zhi Yong Huang, 21.

No arrests have been made in Hong Kong or China in relation to the
raids in Canada.