POLICE IN VANCOUVER AND TORONTO MAKE HUGE HEROIN SEIZURES OF 156
KILOGRAMS

(CP) - Police in Vancouver and Toronto have made huge drug busts,
seizing a stunning total of 156 kilograms of heroin. The Vancouver
bust alone, which followed a 20-month investigation, is billed by
police as one of the largest seizures of heroin ever in Canada.

RCMP recovered 99 kilograms in that haul and arrested seven men. The
force said Tuesday some of the suspects are alleged to be "senior
architects of an international drug smuggling operation."

"The drug seizure is significant not only because of the quantity of
heroin seized, but because some of the people arrested are the alleged
leaders of this major international smuggling operations," RCMP
Inspector Terry Town, head of the Vancouver RCMP Drug Section, said in
a statement. "There are only a few groups in the world that can
orchestrate this type of massive drug movement and we have obliterated
this one. The only enforcement step higher would take us into the
production fields of the Golden Triangle."

The announcement of the arrests and drug seizure comes only hours
after an RCMP announcement from Toronto of a big heroin bust totalling
57 kilograms.

Both police in Vancouver and authorities in Toronto released few
details. News conferences were scheduled in both cities Tuesday.

RCMP Sgt. Glenn Hanna said in Toronto that police in Vancouver and
Toronto assisted each other in the separate seizures.

The seizure announced in Toronto on Monday included approximately 57
kilograms of South East Asian heroin, 17 kilograms of yet unidentified
pills and approximately $1.2 million in cash, officials said in a release.

In Vancouver, police said they recovered the heroin over the weekend
following a 20-month investigation by the RCMP drug section's Asian
Organized Crime Unit.

The Toronto seizure was made Thursday, while the Vancouver one came
Saturday.