ECSTASY LAB IN MARKHAM MADE 20,000 TABS A WEEK: CHEMIST

Police Found Vats Instead Of Flasks Usually Seen In Such
Busts

A clandestine Markham laboratory was churning out as many as 20,000
ecstasy tablets a week before it was shut down by police this week, a
senior Health Canada chemist says.

John Hugel - who has been called to almost every illegal drug lab bust
in Ontario in the past 20 years - was resting yesterday after spending
the previous two days with police at a two-storey house on Larksmere
Court, the site of the largest illegal drug operation he's ever witnessed.

"This was a very big set-up," Hugel said.

Hugel is the only Health Canada chemist in Ontario whose primary
responsibility is to investigate the substances used by amateur
chemists intent on making big bucks by setting up drug labs.

Instead of finding the usual 1- or 2-litre flasks commonly used in the
production of the designer drug ecstasy, Hugel said several 20-litre
vats were found, indicating that huge batches were produced.

Depending on the method chemists used, they were probably churning out
two kilograms of ecstasy a week or the equivalent of 20,000 pills, he
said.

The vats contained flammable chemicals such as acetone. Cancer-causing
substances were found in the house which wasn't ventilated and posed a
huge risk to area residents.

Gas masks and latex gloves were the only signs left yesterday of the
threat of serious explosion.

Residents who had been evacuated from 15 surrounding houses returned
to their homes Friday night after police cleared the potentially fatal
chemical concoctions.

"When solvents are evaporated and there is no proper ventilation, one
spark and an explosion levelling the house could occur," Hugel said.

Last May, a man was killed in an explosion of a hash lab in Quebec
which destroyed the house and damaged others. In 1995, two men were
killed in Oshawa when an explosion at a drug lab blew the porch right
off a house.

Yesterday, next door neighbour Rahim Motamed, 44, was still in shock
over the revelations of danger so close to home.

"I thought I was coming to a good area," said Motamed, who moved his
family to the tidy neighbourhood last week. "I don't know what's going
on, we're still worried."

Police say the threat of danger is gone but the deserted house, which
was being rented out but only used as a lab, will never be the same
again.

"The chemicals have completely permeated everything - the walls, the
carpets, every part of the house. I don't think anyone would want to
move their family in there," said RCMP Constable Michele Paradis.

She would not say who the owner is. She added that more arrests are
expected.

Two people are in custody on drug-related charges.

The bust marks the third ecstasy lab to be discovered in Ontario since
January, said Hugel, who expects the number will rise as more people
cash in on the demand.

Already, more people are producing ecstasy than speed.

"It seems that ecstasy use is outpacing anything we've ever seen
before," said Hugel, whose unit investigated 460 ecstasy busts last
year.