SECOND ECSTASY HOUSE BUSTED IN MARKHAM

Pills Found In Basement After 911 Call For Fire

No Arrests In Sunday's $10 Million Drug Seizure

York Region police and firefighters discovered an ecstasy operation at
a home in Markham yesterday, about a kilometre from a house where
chemicals and drugs worth $10 million were seized Sunday.

According to York Region police, a resident on Brunswick Ave., near
Kennedy Rd. and Major MacKenzie Dr. E., called 911 about 9:30 a.m. to
report smoke coming from another house on the street. When
firefighters arrived they found a fire in the kitchen and a man asleep
in an upstairs bedroom, said Detective Don Cardwell of York police.

Cardwell said the fire was unrelated to drug production.

The firefighters then searched the rest of the house and found a
locked storage room in the basement, police said. Firefighters asked
the man to open the room, but he repeatedly refused, police said.
Finally, they broke into the room and found a pill press and what
Cardwell described as "a large quantity" of ecstasy pills.

When the drugs were discovered, the man ran out of the house, wearing
only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and flip-flops, police said. He scurried
through some neighbouring yards, managing to elude police and police
dogs. Police were unable to determine immediately how many pills were
found, how much the drugs were worth or who owned the house. By late
yesterday afternoon, they were still waiting for a warrant to search
the house. In Sunday's bust, on Manhattan Dr. near 16th Ave. and
McCowan Rd., police also found drugs and chemicals after fire crews
responded to reports of a fire at the house. But Cardwell pointed out
that the first house contained a lab that processed the raw materials
of ecstasy, while the house on Brunswick Ave. held the actual ecstasy
pills and the tools used to make them.

"We believe it might be the next stage of the (drug-manufacturing)
process," Cardwell said. "There is a possibility that the two
(operations) are linked, but we're not sure yet. It'll probably take
days before we have any findings."

Francesca Bufardeci lives three doors away from the house where the
drugs were discovered. She saw the man run from the house but says the
people who live there don't socialize much.

"They were never to be seen," she said. "Every once in a while I'll
see an old lady (outside). Today was the first day I've ever seen the
guy come out."

Police described the suspect as 35-40 years old, 5-foot-7 and chubby
with short black hair. No arrests have been made in Sunday's drug find.