DURHAM POLICE SEIZE $40M IN COCAINE

276 Kg Hidden In Hot Sauce Boxes

Durham Regional Police have arrested an Etobicoke businessman and
seized $40-million worth of cocaine hidden inside boxes of hot sauce
in what they call an "ingenious" drug trafficking operation.

About 276 kilograms of 80% pure cocaine was found hidden inside the
dividers of boxes of hot sauce in a shipping container headed to
Caribbean International Food Distributors of Etobicoke.

It represents about a week's worth of cocaine for the GTA, said Durham
Regional Police Chief Constable Mike Ewles.

The operation is the largest seizure of cocaine in Durham Region's
history, Durham Inspector Tom Cameron said yesterday.

"Our partners in Canada Border Services haven't seen this level of
sophistication in terms of packaging," Chief Const. Ewles said.

The cocaine was concealed in 551 of the 1,250 boxes of sauce brought
to Canada from Guyana on a container ship. The freighter, Tropic
Canada, arrived in Saint John, N. B., on Dec. 8.

Border guards discovered the drugs during an inspection at the Port of
Saint John. They removed most of the cocaine, but left two kilograms
to be delivered to the Etobicoke food distribution company.

Police arrested 45-year-old Mahendrapaul Doodnauth of Seguin Court in
Etobicoke yesterday after he unloaded all of the boxes of hot sauce at
a storage facility in Rexdale .

The investigation is continuing and there could be more arrests,
police said.