DRUG BUST CLEARS STREET

Ecstasy Blast Feared In Markham

Mounties who busted one of Canada's largest Ecstasy labs yesterday
evacuated 16 Markham homes, fearing an explosion or toxic spill of
chemicals used to make the "love drug."

"It's probably the largest I've seen, probably one of the largest in
Canada," said Health Canada chemist John Hugel. "There's a lot of materials
inside. I'm seeing 20-litre pails of chemicals which suggests that we're
talking multi-kilograms of Ecstasy."

Similar labs usually have one or two 20-litre pails but this one had 20 or
30 such containers, he said.

"Some of (the chemicals) are quite toxic, some of them are flammable.
They're dangerous, that's the long and the short of it," Hugel said.

'VERY QUIET STREET'

Mounties moved in on the lab, nestled in a two-storey house in a
residential area on Larksmere Ct., near Steeles Ave. and Birchmount Rd.,
early yesterday morning after a month-long probe and arrested two men, aged
20 and 21.

Their names were not released, and investigating officers said more arrests
are possible.

Nervous area families were relocated until 11 p.m. last night. Many stood
in clusters outside the cordoned area, watching as the blue drums were
moved out of the home, shocked that it was taking place on their "family
street."

"We came from a bad neighbourhood to a supposedly better one," said
eight-month resident Yajaira Torres, 20.

"It's a very quiet street, a family neighbourhood," said another who didn't
want to be named.

'IT'S SCARY'

She said she had noticed police surveillance outside the house the last few
days and "knew something was going to happen."

"It's scary. There are kids in every single house, that's why I don't
understand that something like this could happen here."

Police seized an AK-47 assault rifle, Const. Michele Paradis said.

"There's a whole bunch of chemicals in there from sulphuric acid, acetate,
nitrogen gas, nitro-methane, methylene chloride. Every surface is covered
with chemicals," she said. "It's not a residence ... it's simply a drug lab."

The chemicals are toxic -- some of them carcinogenic.

"Some of the chemicals we're dealing with could explode in a fireball,"
Hugel said. "Usually someone evaporates them, there's a spark or something
and they explode. There was a huge explosion in Boucherville a month ago
that killed one person and injured another three and that's exactly what
they were doing."