ECSTASY HAUL THE BIGGEST IN ALBERTA, POLICE SAY

CALGARY -- A police unit set up specifically to combat organized crime in
Alberta announced yesterday the largest seizure of the drug ecstasy in
provincial history, a move investigators hope proves to be a major hit to
the illegal drug trade.

Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit, or IROC, seized
213,000 tablets of the club drug worth an estimated $4.25-million on the
street and have charged a 32-year-old Calgary man with a number of drug and
weapons offences.

IROC Staff Sergeant Barry Balerud said the bust is a significant disruption
in the drug pipeline to the province, but it will take time to determine
whether an arm of organized crime has been dismantled. More charges may be
laid.

"Alberta is booming. That's what's going to attract these kinds of
criminals," Staff Sgt. Balerud said.

The investigation, dubbed Project Intrigue, began late last fall when
police working from a tip and other intelligence information learned a
massive shipment of ecstasy would be headed to Calgary from Vancouver.

On June 15, officers executed a search warrant at a home in Calgary's
northeast, but police made the raid public only yesterday, citing concerns
about the continuing investigation.

Police said the 250-milligram tablets were laced with 20 milligrams of
methamphetamine, a highly addictive substance provincial premiers say is
plaguing Canada's West. Ottawa has recently pledged to introduce stiffer
penalties in an attempt to cut the trafficking and use of the drug.

IROC Acting Inspector Al Sauve said in addition to more resources for
policing to shut down the drug supply, the public needs to be educated
about the dangers of drugs in order to curb demand.

"The hue and cry going on across the country right now is going to help,"
he said.

Detective Nina Vaughan, the drug expert with the Calgary Police Service,
said drug makers add trace amounts of the substance to ecstasy to make
users crave it and increase the intensity of the high.