RCMP HAULS IN HASHISH CACHE IN HIGH-SEAS STING OPERATION

Drugs Seized On Vessel Off African Coast Were En Route To Canada, Police Say

MONTREAL -- It was a sting operation on the high seas that was daring
even for seasoned Canadian police.

One day last month, a boat sailed secretively onto the waters off the
coast of Africa to deliver an illicit cargo: nearly 1,000 bags of
hashish from Pakistan destined for Canada, police said.

About 320 kilometres off the coast of Angola, the boat met with
another vessel that was to pick up the drugs and deliver them to
Montreal. Unbeknownst to the suppliers, however, the pickup vessel
was filled with 50 undercover Mounties.

Yesterday, the RCMP in Montreal unveiled details of a swashbuckling
maritime police operation that netted them 22.5 tonnes of hashish.
Police said it was the first time Mounties headed out onto
international waters to intercept drugs.

"This indicates that in the battle against drugs consumption and
trafficking, we have no boundaries," said Staff Sergeant Andre
Potvin, head of operations for the RCMP drug section in Montreal.

Police video, filmed from the RCMP boat, shows the May 10 sting under
way. Filipino sailors on the deck of the supply boat are seen
hoisting sacks of drugs onto their shoulders as their vessel bobs on
the open water. They had already arranged the rendezvous and, after
trading prearranged codes over maritime radio, believed the boat
awaiting them was part of their drug-shipment operation, the RCMP said.

The drugs were destined for suspects connected to Montreal's
notorious West End gang, police said.

According to Staff Sgt. Potvin, the Filipino sailors simply threw the
sacks from their ship onto the Canadian boat. The Mounties, their
cargo secured, then sailed back to Canada under protection from the
National Defence frigate HMCS Fredericton.

Arrested in the sting operation were 57-year-old Peter Toman, his son
Andrew Toman, 24, and Sidney Lallouz, a Montreal man with a long and
checkered history, who police allege was acting as a financial broker
for the shipment.

All three are from the Montreal area and are alleged to have
controlled an import cell for the city's West End gang, the RCMP
said. They have been charged with drug importation, conspiracy to
import, possession for the purpose of trafficking and drug trafficking.

The RCMP became involved after learning that a man was seeking a crew
and ship able to navigate on deep waters and to carry drugs, the
agency said. Working with RCMP in Halifax, Mounties in Montreal
chartered a boat and posed as maritime shippers.

Police did not seize the drugs right away. They said they delivered a
portion of it to a man. On Friday, as the man was moving to protect
the cache, they swooped down and carried out the arrests, seizing
$195,000, Staff Sgt. Potvin said.

He said that another man had agreed to pay about $4.5-million for the
hashish shipment.

The drug bust is only the latest chapter in the life of Sidney
Lallouz, who for decades has been named in various drug cases and
real-estate controversies in Montreal.

Mr. Lallouz is a convicted drug dealer who spent 30 months behind
bars for conspiring to import 700 kilograms of hashish from Pakistan.
After his release in 1985, he and two others set up a real-estate
firm that partnered with a municipal agency in a development project
near Old Montreal.

Police investigated the project because a series of land flips made
the city agency pay $34.8-million for real estate evaluated at a
third of that amount.

Mr. Lallouz left for Spain as banks were suing him for $5-million in
real-estate-deal debts.

By 1994, he was back in Montreal, as a co-owner in a health spa and a
small mall, using his Hebrew given name, Chimeon. Those businesses
went under, with Revenue Canada looking for $1.1-million in unpaid
taxes by Mr. Lallouz. U.S. authorities also alleged that $750,000
from a fugitive drug trafficker had been invested in the mall.

Next, Mr. Lallouz's name was linked to the Marche Central scandal, in
which three businessmen were charged with fraud after a congregation
of Roman Catholic nuns were hookwinked into investing $100-million in
a Montreal shopping centre.

Court documents allege that Mr. Lallouz worked as a front for the
three businessmen, and at one point he filed a court affidavit in a
bid to claim three briefcases stuffed with $372,000 in small bills
that had been found in a building garage and were believed to be
linked to the Marche Central dealings.

Police also worked with RCMP liaison officers in England, Morocco,
Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Spain.