LAB YIELDS 'NASTY STUFF'

'There Was Extreme Potential For Disaster,' Police Discover

Value Of Ecstasy Bust Could Climb As Inventory Continues

The man who answered the door of the smoky Markham home shooed away a
neighbour who feared the place was on fire. "We're cooking," he said, then
slammed the door.

They were cooking, all right. Firefighters who arrived moments later found
a sophisticated illicit laboratory that had cooked up more than $10 million
of the psychedelic drug ecstasy in upstairs bedrooms.

A man and a young child fled out the back door and disappeared over a fence
just a block from a local police station.

Police, firefighters and Health Canada chemists were to return today for a
fourth day of ripping apart the lab and examining toxic chemicals used in
the drug-making process. It is believed to be the largest ecstasy seizure
in Canada, if not North America.

"It's just huge," said Detective Rob Cullen of the York Region police
intelligence unit.

"And it's filled with some particularly nasty stuff."

In addition to more than 50 kilograms of finished ecstasy powder and more
than 10 kilograms of packaged marijuana, police have found a witches' brew
of caustic chemicals.

If the overheated chemical reaction that filled the house with smoke early
Saturday morning had been allowed to develop unchecked, it would have
exploded and levelled the two-storey house, Cullen said.

"There was extreme potential for disaster," he said, including a toxic
cloud that could have poisoned a wide area of the neighbourhood near
McCowan Rd. and 16th Ave.

The ecstasy lab wasn't the only bust on the block. Firefighters who went
next door to warn neighbours of the danger found an abandoned marijuana
grow operation still rigged with high-powered lights and equipment.

All of which was news to Carl Parsons, the neighbour on the other side.

"Nothing ever happens here," he said. "This is a peaceful neighbourhood and
they just seemed like normal houses."

Investigators donned protective suits and masks yesterday to enter the drug
den and dismantle the lab. They hauled out finished drug powder and huge
glass flasks that could hold up to 100 litres of liquid.

Cullen said drug makers mix one-tenth of a gram of ecstasy powder with
binders and fillers to make pills, which often sell for $20 and as much as
$40. He said a continuing chemical inventory of the house could "blow that
50-kilo weight even higher" and increase the value of the seized drugs even
more.