ALLEGED DRUG-SMUGGLING MASTERMIND ARRESTED

A 36-year-old Scarborough man will spend the weekend behind bars
pending an extradition ruling stemming from one of Australia's largest
seizures of the drug ecstasy.

The alleged mastermind of a Canada-to-Australia
smuggling operation involving 1.2 million ecstasy tablets weighing
more than 350 kilograms, was picked up by provincial police in a
traffic stop Thursday near Bowmanville, Ont.

He was brought to Toronto by the Toronto Police Service's fugitive
squad and appeared in court yesterday at 361 University Ave., for the
start of an extradition hearing.

Two Australians, another Canadian and two men from China and Pakistan
were already in Australian custody.

They have been charged with helping ship the pills from Vancouver to
the port of Melbourne via Hong Kong, concealed in a shipping container
packed with printing ink.

The street value of the drugs, which reached Australia on June 4, was
placed at $34-million.

Importing narcotics to Australia carries a maximum penalty of life
imprisonment.

Australian police believe the ecstasy, also known as MDMA, was being
made in Canada and this was far from the first cross-border
interception.

"We've got a big trade going on with the U.S., now we're seeing it go
into other foreign markets," said RCMP Superintendent Ron Allen, who
heads the force's drug operations in the Greater Toronto Area.

The precursor ingredients used to manufacture ecstasy are commonly
imported from the Netherlands, and, increasingly, Eastern Europe,
India and China.