THE DUTCH CONNECTION

Police Hoping To Stem Tide Of Rave Drug From Holland

The aspirin-sized white pills look innocent enough.

With symbols like a Teletubby character, unicorn, dove, dwarf or
thunderbolt stamped on them, they might even be confused with something
harmless like candy.

But the hallucinogenic drug known as Ecstasy can be deadly. Yet it still
inspires a carefree attitude among many teenagers, who frequently pop the
tablets into their mouth without a second thought during the all-night
parties known as raves.

Liana Wright, the deputy regional coroner for the New Westminster region,
told The Review Wednesday that an Abbotsford man in his early 20s died last
year after attending a New Westminster rave where he had apparently
consumed the drug Ecstasy. Toxicological tests revealed the drug-known by
its scientific name as MDMA or methylene dioxy-methyl amphetamine-was in
the victim's system, in addition to methamphetamines. It's the only death
last year in the region that she recalls that was linked to Ecstasy.

The Review has also learned that a number of recent seizures and arrests by
police have a link. Much of the drug circulating throughout the Lower
Mainland is apparently made in Holland.

More than 100,000 pills seized by Canada Customs in November are believed
to have been manufactured in Holland, known for its liberal attitude
towards soft drugs such as marijuana.

These tablets were found inside the suitcases belonging to Yousi Sader and
Rafael Tevet, who appeared in Richmond provincial court this week on
charges of importing the drug Ecstasy.

While Sader, a 25-year-old resident of Israel, pleaded guilty to the
importation charge and will be sentenced on April 3, Tevet is currently on
trial in Richmond provincial court after pleading not guilty. The pair flew
into Vancouver on a flight from Madrid through Amsterdam.

Two other recent cases involving the drug also have links to Holland:

* Michael Currie Russell, 54, and pharmacist Brooks Farrell Grenfal, 67,
were sentenced to four years, and two years-less-a-day, respectively, for
conspiring to traffic the drug Ecstasy in Richmond and other parts of the
Lower Mainland.

During a lengthy RCMP investigation involving wiretapping of telephones,
the pair were overheard planning to import the drug from Europe, in
particular Belgium and Holland. Police seized 5,000 pills in the case.

* Bernard Jacobs, a 63-year-old from the Netherlands, was sentenced to
three years in jail by Richmond provincial court judge Joel Groberman after
being caught trying to smuggle nearly 10,000 pills into Vancouver through
the international airport on Dec. 8.

Cognizant of the fact that there is a problem in Europe, many members of
the European Union have set up separate policing agencies aimed at shutting
down Ecstasy labs.

Jsrg Mslling, of the 220-person European police intelligence agency known
as Europol, told The Review early Thursday morning that shutting down the
manufacture of synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy is receiving top priority.

"There is a problem in Europe in the manufacture of designer drugs. It is
regarded as a serious problem. It is a priority."

An investigator in the synthetic drug division, Mslling said that there
were dozens of deaths in Europe attributed to the drug Ecstasy last year.
He said other fatalities may have gone unreported and he noted that
statistics were not kept by some countries.

Mslling said it will take a combined police crackdown and public awareness
effort to reduce the level of manufacture and use of the drug.

He said rave-goers have no idea what they are ingesting when they take the
drug.

Produced by organized crime syndicates in Europe, the drug often contains
other chemicals such as methamphetamines, which can be deadly. Just two
weeks ago, Dutch police seized a large quantity of the drug laced with the
rat poison strychnine.

"You never know what is in the pill," he said from his office in The Hague.
Even if the motifs on the pills are the same, the mix of ingredients can be
different and deadly.

The pills circulating throughout Europe are manufactured in the same places
as the drug being smuggled into Canada, he said.

Ecstasy has become a socially accepted drug in Europe, Mslling said, in
large part because of its clean form of consumption: getting a high doesn't
require snorting or a messy syringe.

When adults look for a headache remedy, they simply pop a Tylenol. Mslling
said the same mindset has evolved with youth hoping to reach a euphoric,
surreal high.

Scientific research links the synthetic drug with Parkinson's disease and
brain damage. German forensic scientists now believe that it is possible to
overdose on the drug.

Large scale production sites dot the European landscape, with some labs
able to produce a million pills a day at a cost of just a few pennies each.

That means there's plenty of profit at stake for criminal syndicates.

"At the end of the day, that's what it's all about."

Serious large-scale production of the drug began in the middle to late
'80s, and has been growing ever since, Mslling said.

The tablets are scored down the middle because after an initial dose of one
pill, users often ingest another half pill to maintain a high that begins
to wane after between four and eight hours.

The drug is both a stimulant and hallucinogenic, causing the heart to race
and rapid breathing.

Ecstasy manufacturers stamp the tablets with a symbol to give users an
indication of relative purity. But with the widespread proliferation of
drug labs, Mslling said counterfeit tablets are commonplace.