CROWN SEIZES $355K HOME

Residence Part of Ecstasy Case

The parents of three men already convicted for their role in a ring
that smuggled ecstasy into the U.S. have entered a guilty plea and
surrendered their $355,000 Tecumseh home to the Crown.

Adil Odish, 54, and his wife Suad, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
traffic and conspiracy to export a narcotic in Superior Court on Friday.

On Monday, they surrendered their home on Funaro Crescent in Tecumseh,
a 2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette, a laptop, a number of cellphones, $500
cash and 1,000 Syrian pounds to the Crown.

The couple have already vacated the raised ranch, two-car garage home
and are living with their youngest son in Windsor.

The Odishes will be sentenced by Superior Court Justice Richard Gates
on Wednesday.

Defence lawyers and the Crown are recommending a sentence of 18 months
of strict house arrest with conditions they not possess a cellphone or
leave Essex County.

Adil and Suad Odish were both arrested in October 2006 for their roles
in a cross-border ecstasy-smuggling ring that used minors and senior
citizens as drug mules to ferry large quantities of
methamphetamine-laced ecstasy tablets from Toronto through the
Windsor-Detroit tunnel.

Both defendants declined to speak to the court when given the
opportunity Monday.

The arrests came after a six-month investigation by the RCMP, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, the Canada Border Services Agency and
the Sterling Heights, Mich., police department.

"This was excellent police work," said federal prosecutor Richard
Pollock.

A total of 25 people were arrested on both sides of the
border.

"You can count the number of people and see how successful an
operation it was," said Pollock.

Three of the Odishes' sons, Mazin, 32, Jimis, 27, and Steven, 24, were
also charged and have been convicted for their roles in the operation.
Jimis Odish has been prosecuted and convicted in the U.S., so Canadian
charges have been withdrawn.

The various police agencies seized 55,000 ecstasy tablets, believed to
have been manufactured in Toronto and worth more than $1 million.

Of the 25 people charged, 13 are from the local area.

An agreed statement of fact filed by Pollock on Monday explains the
roles of the Odish parents in the smuggling scheme.

"Both Adil and Suad Odish participated in the collection and transfer
of drug profits and proceeds from drug sales for the purchase of
further drugs," the statement reads.

"Wiretap intercepts and physical surveillance corroborated the receipt
and delivery of monies by Suad and Adil Odish in furtherance of the
conspiracies."

The investigation revealed that on July 6, 2006, Suad Odish, the
mother, retrieved $20,000 from the Tecumseh family home and delivered
it to Maher Amrou, a Windsor-based member of the group who delivered
drugs, rented hotel rooms and transported money.

On July 12, 2006, a police wiretap of an Adil Odish phone conversation
revealed that he told the person at the other end that he had been
searched by a Canada Border Services Agency officer while en route to
Michigan to retrieve a large amount of money at the behest of one of
his sons.

The Odish home now becomes the property of the Seized Property
Management Directorate, a federal agency that disposes items seized as
proceeds of crime.

The Odish seizure is one of the largest in Essex County in recent
years.

In 2006 the conviction of Carmelo (Carmen) Amante in connection with a
cocaine-trafficking ring resulted in the seizure of a number of
assets, including $100,000, Amante's RRSPs and a number of vehicles.

Also in 2006 two homes were seized under proceeds-of-crime legislation
in connection with a grow-op case.

Another accused in the case, Kamile Hazime, pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to traffic and conspiracy to export ecstasy and was
sentenced to four years.

Another accused, Ahmed Hab Hab, pleaded guilty Aug. 6 to the same
offences and is to be sentenced Oct. 15.