CANADA A KEY SOURCE OF METH, ECSTASY

UN Report Blames Asian, Biker Gangs For Dramatic Shift

Asian and "traditional" biker gangs have dramatically stepped up
production of illegal "party" drugs in Canada, turning the country into a
significant exporter, the United Nations said yesterday.

In a global survey of illegal drug production and trafficking, Canada is
identified as a "primary" world source of ecstasy, and probably the
biggest supplier of methamphetamine "uppers" to Australia and Japan.

"Canada has become a major trafficking hub for meth and ecstasy," says the
World Drug Report 2009 prepared by the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and
Crime.

"By 2006, law-enforcement intelligence noted that Asian organized crime
and traditional outlaw motorcycle gangs operating in Canada had increased
the amount of methamphetamine they manufactured and exported, primarily
into the United States, but also to Oceania and East and South-East Asia."

Most of the ecstasy produced in Canada was "thought to be" destined for
the U.S., Australia and Japan, the report says. "In 2007, it was estimated
that 50 per cent of domestically produced ecstasy was trafficked outside
of Canada," it said.

Antonio Maria Costa, the UN's anti-drug czar, said Canada's rise as a
trafficker results from a "perfect storm" of events involving
law-enforcement levels and ease of access to ingredients known as
"precursor chemicals."

While a "robust" clampdown in the Netherlands rolled back ecstasy
production in that country, the U.S. banned over-the-counter sales of
certain precursor chemicals, he said. In Canada, Asian gangs used their
contacts in China and elsewhere to import precursors and to develop
trafficking routes throughout Asia and beyond.

"So Canada is being attacked from both the West and the East, as well as
from the South," Costa said.

He described gang members as primarily young and, therefore, most likely
Canadian-born.