POLICE ECSTATIC AT CAPTURE OF SLOPPY PILL SMUGGLERS

$5-million worth of Ecstasy barely hidden in clothes

Two women and three men stepped off a 6 p.m. flight from Paris to
Toronto with $5-million worth of the trendy drug Ecstasy so poorly
hidden under their clothes that police officers were amazed at the
unsightly bulges and sloppy attempt at concealment.

The bust Tuesday night turned out to be the largest single seizure of
the drug in Canada. It was found packed in plastic and sewn into the
lining of several bomber jackets and wrapped together in nylon
stockings and slung, belt-like, around their waists.

"That is a very poor job. You would never see a heroin courier or a
cocaine courier do such a lousy job of packaging drugs and bringing it
in so blatantly," said Staff Sergeant Bill Matheson, commander of the
RCMP's Airport Drug Enforcement Unit.

The jackets weighed pounds more than they would normally. The lining
sagged and drooped from the weight of the drugs and the restitching
was sloppy.

As if to erase any doubt that the material was drug-related, the
plastic bags were stamped with pictures of green marijuana leaves.

When police unpacked and weighed the cache, they found about 170,000
Ecstasy pills.

Many of the 170,000 thick, baby blue tablets -- each imprinted with a
butterfly, denoting the illicit drug laboratory in the Netherlands
where they were made -- would likely have been consumed at raves in
and around Toronto over the long weekend, police said.

"We know that Toronto is becoming known as the rave capital of North
America and, unfortunately, the drug Ecstasy is connected to the
raves," said RCMP Superintendent Ben Soave, head of a joint task force
fighting organized crime.

Ecstasy and raves, all-night dance parties, have been under intense
scrutiny in Ontario, and a coroner's inquest is underway in Toronto
examining the death of a student who collapsed at a rave last October.
It is one of 13 Ecstasy-related deaths in Ontario since 1998.

The five couriers are from the Vancouver area. One of the couriers, a
47-year-old woman, is alleged to be a "controller," who watched over
the junior couriers on the flight, police sources said.

The group is linked to an Asian-based organized crime group, police
added.