BUST WITH A DIFFERENCE

Drug busts usually follow certain lines -- a mound of powder, an ingenious
plot and the arrest of small-time players in a big-time cartel.

With the arrest of three kingpins in a trafficking organization attempting
to control the price of heroin North America-wide, RCMP said yesterday
they've made a different kind of bust -- one whose impact will be felt in
the underworld for some time.

"It's the other way around this time," RCMP spokesman Russ Grabb told a news
conference. "You have the upper-echelon players in jail."

Police were elated yesterday after a 13-month multi-departmental
investigation that appears to have served up three prime players of an Asian
heroin operation.

Two men arrested in Canada -- Chi Hang Chan, 30, of Richmond and Kwok Yung
Chan, 35, of Toronto -- are charged with conspiracy to traffic in heroin.
Chi Hang Chan is also charged with possession of heroin for the purpose of
trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime.

A third man and his wife were among several arrested in Hong Kong. Chi Hang
Chan is a brother-in-law to the Toronto man and the Hong Kong man, who are
brothers. Chi Hang Chan was living under an alias after an immigration court
here ordered him deported.

Canadian police seized 70 kilograms of 93-per-cent-pure heroin, a heroin
press, $100,000 and a pair of brand-new Mercedes automobiles. The Hong Kong
arm of the bust took in $380,000 Cdn and also stumbled on a bank account
that has seen more than $22 million HK ($4.5 million Cdn).

Police estimate that the heroin -- displayed yesterday in hard-packed,
cellophane-wrapped bricks -- would be worth about $14 million on the street.

RCMP refused yesterday to reveal many of the details of the trafficking
organization.

Staff-Sgt. Al Armstrong, team leader of the Greater Vancouver drug section,
did say: "There's only a few people in Canada capable of controlling this
amount of heroin at any given time."

Police said the gang members felt they could control the street-level price
of heroin by holding on to their supply or flooding the market.