$40-MILLION DRUG BUST BEGAN WITH ONTARIO PROBE

Crime Cocaine Found Aboard Container Ship At Port Of Saint
John

SAINT JOHN - Last Friday, police arrested an Ontario man as he
unloaded 1,250 boxes of "hot sauce" at a rented storage facility in
Toronto.

The hot sauce, as it turns out, was protected by cardboard partitions
that had been taken apart and plugged with 1,653 packages of 77-79 per
cent pure cocaine - a total of 276 kilograms or 100,000 hits with a
street value of $40 million.

The arrest is one of several intriguing pieces of a police
investigation dubbed Project Falcon that began when investigators set
out to identify sources of cocaine being found on street gang members
and drug users in Durham region, the so-called Golden Horseshoe that
stretches from Oshawa to Niagara Falls.

The bust that was carried out on a container ship at the Port of Saint
John on Dec. 11 is the biggest in New Brunswick history.

Investigators removed all but two kilos of the illicit drug and
conducted a controlled delivery of the container to a storage facility
in Toronto.

The story began three months ago when an investigation alerted police
to the activity of a criminal network responsible for importing
cocaine and selling it on the streets of Durham region and elsewhere
in the Golden Horseshoe.

In this instance, cocaine was found hidden inside boxes of hot sauce
on a 12-metre container destined for a business in Etobicoke, Ont.

Police have declined to identify the container ship, which docked in
Saint John on Dec. 8.

Working from information gleaned by undercover intelligence, officers
brought in Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) dogs that are
trained to alert police to the presence of illegal drugs, said Don
Collins, CBSA director of the southern N.B./P.E.I. district.

Once the dogs alerted police, X-ray equipment narrowed down the
cocaine's location and officers took the container to a secure
location away from the ship where it was methodically opened.

"There are health concerns, right off the bat," said Insp. Darrell
Scribner of the Saint John Police Force.

"What you really have is a crime scene."

It is then removed from the cardboard partitions, taken apart,
weighed, documented, labelled and prepared to be entered into
evidence. Once cut, the seized cocaine would have turned into
approximately 400 kilos of "street level" cocaine, worth about $40
million using current prices.

"The magnitude of this investigation and the volume of cocaine seized
is the biggest our police service has ever been involved with," said
Chief Const. Mike Ewles of the Durham Police.

"Cocaine is a highly addictive poison that tears families apart," he
said.

"It is often the root cause of many crimes, especially at the street
level. Some people engage in a life of crime to support their
addiction. It is also a commodity that supports criminal gangs and
wreaks havoc in our communities with associated turf wars and killings."

Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, 45, of Etobicoke, Ont., has been charged with
importing cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of
cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

He appeared in court via video on Tuesday and has been remanded. There
were not details on Tuesday's court appearance.

The Canadian Border Services Agency, RCMP and Saint John Police Force
were also involved in the investigation.

The Durham Regional Police Gang Enforcement Unit is characterizing the
drug bust as "one of the largest seizures of cocaine in recent memory."

The investigation is continuing and police are not ruling out the
possibility of more arrests. Anonymous tips can be made to Durham
Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Tipsters may be
eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.