POLICE THOUGHT DRUGS WOULD BE SOLD AT RAVE

When police raided a Halifax rave last month, they expected to find
200 vials of the date-rape drug GHB hidden in the dance-hall ceiling.

Instead, investigators discovered nothing in the ceiling, and after a
thorough search of everyone inside the Maynard Street building, only
two bags of marijuana and an assortment of unidentified pills were
found.

No charges have been laid.

According to a search-warrant made public yesterday, Halifax Regional
Police Const. Andrew Pattison was convinced a virtual illicit
drugstore would be discovered in the downtown club's ceiling.

He based his opinion on three unnamed sources who independently
provided police with information on the rave environment.

The first source - someone Pattison described as a paid informant who
previously provided police with accurate information from the drug
world - stated rave organizers "commonly" traffic ecstasy.

A second source told police about the Jan. 29 rave at the Underground,
dubbed Repercussions, and that "there would be a number of people at
the rave trafficking in Ecstasy."

`Unknown reliability'

But the clincher for police was information a third person with
"unknown reliability" gave Staff Sgt. Robert Kennedy on the day of the
rave.

According to the search warrant, this unnamed person claimed he saw
Wayne Mitchell, owner of the Underground, earlier that day place a jar
of ecstasy above a ceiling tile located over the dance floor.

The man also told Kennedy he saw Mitchell, 37, place in the ceiling
approximately 200 five-gram vials of GHB, commonly known as the
date-rape drug.

A search of police data-bases then revealed Mitchell was known to
police for hosting raves, and in 1989 was convicted of conspiring to
traffic in a narcotic.

After compiling all this information, Pattison went to justice of the
peace Alan Weeks, who granted the search warrant.

Police have been heavily criticized for performing strip searches on
as many as 50 staffers during the raid.

Many of those searched - some of whom were in their early teens - have
publicly said they felt "violated" by police because they were forced
to strip.

One lawyer familiar with the case told The Daily News yesterday police
would have a hard time justifying the strip-searches because the
warrant specified the drugs were supposed to be hidden in the ceiling.