DEALERS MAKE A KILLING KEEPING REVELLERS ECSTATIC

The big spenders are in town or on the way. And the ecstasy dealers are
stoked up and waiting to make their fortunes.

With $100 million to spend, visitors pouring in for Sydney's biggest and
longest dance party - the month-long Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras - will not
find any difficulty obtaining supplies of the "hug drug".

Despite two raids last month which netted Australian record seizures
totalling 126 kilograms - about 700,000 ecstasy tablets worth about $30
million on the streets - there is no shortage of the most popular brands,
CK Gold, Road Runner, Blue Turtles, Olympic and Mitsubishi.

The supply is so plentiful the price remains the same: $35 to $50 a tablet,
depending on who one buys from. One to two tablets are considered a normal
consumption for an all-night party. Some users also take cocaine and
amphetamines.

Most ecstasy is imported from the Netherlands or Britain at $5 a tablet and
wholesaled to dealers at $15-$20, depending on how many they buy.

The Mardi Gras, with more than 600,000 visitors, is a huge potential
market.

"From Thursday nights through to Monday morning, it's a non-stop party,"
said the local area commander for Surry Hills, Superintendent Gary Hodsdon
whose men patrol the Oxford Street "pink zone".

The local area commander for City Central, Superintendent Donald Graham,
said: "Our intelligence is that there has not been any drop in
availability."

Police estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 mostly young people attend
at least a dozen big dance parties in these two areas each weekend.

Superintendent Graham said: "Our assessment is that in some instances it is
highly improbable that recreational drugs are available without

the knowledge of the security staff and the management."

Three weeks ago, police arrested three employees at a popular Kings Cross
venue and charged them with selling cocaine and ecstasy to nightclubbers.
They raided the club at 10pm on a Friday night and seized 3,000 tablets.
The raid by 60 police came after undercover detectives gathered
intelligence in an operation that lasted three months.

"Using undercover police is a difficult and dangerous operation,"
Superintendent Hodsdon said. "For every agent we send in, we also have to
send in a back-up team ready to make an instant response to any threat.

"They must be under surveillance and in communication every second they're
in there.

"Some of these places are so dark, you've got to know exactly where you're
going and what you are going to do when you get there. So it requires a
number of operations to get any information."