Bail Hearings Held for Nine Men Charged in Drug Bust

Nine Ontario men sought on U.S. extradition warrants appeared in a
Toronto court yesterday for bail hearings, charged in a huge
drug-smuggling bust that netted almost 300 suspects in Canada and the
United States.

Led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and dubbed Operation
Sweet Tooth, the two-year joint-forces police operation targeted an
Asian organized-crime network allegedly specializing in the
trafficking of ecstasy and marijuana and the laundering of profits
that were being sent to Vietnam.

Authorities seized more than 900,000 ecstasy (MDMA) tablets, more than
600 kilograms of marijuana and $7.7-million (U.S.) in assets.

The drugs were being spirited across the U.S. border from Canada, said
RCMP Superintendent Ron Allen, who heads drug-enforcement in the
Greater Toronto Area. The ecstasy pills were being manufactured in
makeshift labs, while the marijuana was produced in grow operations,
he said.

"But our focus was the MDMA trade," Supt. Allen said, adding that what
was particularly disturbing was that many of the exported ecstasy
pills had been heavily cut with methamphetamine and in some cases were
90 per cent meth, which is far more addictive than ecstasy.

Canadian police were able to identify the distribution and
transportation ring but not the pill-pressing labs themselves, Supt.
Allen said. The ingredients were allegedly imported from Asia and Europe.

The United States has long been a profitable destination for illegal
Canadian drugs that are either made here or transported from another
point of origin.

"We have a problem here," Supt. Allen said. "Organized crime will take
advantage. . . . They feel that the laws in the U.S. [regarding drug
production] are much more harsh than they are here."

In this instance, it's alleged that the network comprised two
organizations, which between them were distributing 1.5 million
ecstasy tablets each month -- almost one-quarter of the MDMA brought
into the United States in 2003.

Some of the drug profits were allegedly sent to Vietnam, whose
Ministry of Public Security also aided the operation, marking the
first time U.S. police have worked with undercover Vietnamese police,
the DEA said.

A British Columbia resident was also arrested and provisional arrest
warrants have been issued for four other Canadians.

All the accused face drug-conspiracy charges in the United States,
where a total of 281 suspects from 61 different judicial districts
have been arrested.

"Without the assistance of the Canadians, we could not have done this,
and we're very appreciative," DEA special agent Steve Robertson said.

Most of the Canadians are from the GTA, but their names were not
immediately released. They were picked up on what are termed
provisional warrants, which entail charging people accused under the
laws of another country.

Operation Sweet Tooth grew out of an earlier joint U.S.-Canadian drug
sweep, Operation Candy Box, which resulted in arrests in the spring of
last year.

"When you make a whole pile of arrests, there's a whole pile of people
who don't want to go to jail, " Supt. Allen said. "So what do they do?
They co-operate with the police."

The drug proceeds were sent to Vietnam through the use of bulk courier
transport, money remitters and the Vietnamese underground banking
system, U.S. officials said.