MOSER RIVER DRUG SUSPECTS 'LITTLE ODD' AS NEIGHBOURS

Guard Dogs, Zodiac Often at Sea Had People Asking: What's Going
On?

Eileen Maldeis says it didn't take long for her to notice something
strange about the man she sold a house to in her hometown Moser River,
near an $18-million offshore cocaine seizure this week.

Ms. Maldeis sold the white bungalow at 28534 Highway 7 for her
daughter Melody Berlyn, who moved to Australia.

The buyer didn't like the propane stove, Ms. Maldeis said in an
interview Friday.

The problem was that he would have needed to open an account with a
propane supplier, which he didn't want to do.

"He said, 'I pay for everything by cash, I don't write
cheques.'"

She sold the house, through a real estate agent, in the fall of 2000,
but the stove didn't stay.

"Eventually, the propane tanks were removed, I could see that they
were beside the house."

Sgt. Wayne Noonan, spokesman for the RCMP in Nova Scotia, said the man
who bought the house is not involved in the drug conspiracy. The
Chronicle Herald isn't divulging his name for legal reasons.

The RCMP, Canadian Coast Guard, a navy warship and several other
agencies took part in the drug bust that centred on the 15-metre yacht
FriendShip off the Eastern Shore on Monday night.

Police arrested nine people from three countries and seized more than
500 kilograms of cocaine. They also executed a search warrant at the
Moser River house, which an RCMP release said was to be used to
"conceal the drug prior to distribution."

Before the sale, Ms. Maldeis said the house was on the market for six
months with a price of about $80,000. That is higher than normal for
the area, she said, attributing that to its waterfrontage.

"There were a couple of other people interested, but this particular
person seemed very interested."

The man started with a low offer but slowly rose to the asking
price.

"He came up to the amount I wanted," she said. "They kept coming up to
meet the price. That seemed a little strange."

"It was (the) waterfrontage - that's what sold it."

She said the agreement of purchase and sale was in the name of the
buyer's daughter.

Ms. Maldeis said the buyer was "a very agreeable person,
pleasant."

Sometimes he sold her meat pies that she said were
delicious.

He told her he'd be away from Moser River for long periods because he
was a chef at a Canadian mountain resort.

A young man and woman, who looked to be in their early 20s, stayed at
the house but kept to themselves most of the time, Ms. Maldeis said.

Some of Ms. Maldeis's relatives lived near the house, which is on the
western edge of Moser River. They often noticed ATVs going down to the
water and spotted the neighbours' Zodiac going out to sea.

They found the couple living in the house friendly, but once asked
them to control their dogs, which made them nervous.

"They were guard dogs. They were not your ordinary friendly little
Lab," Ms. Maldeis said.

After Monday's arrests, she said she remembered something else about
the property.

"I thought, my God, that basement was a great place for
storage."

She said previous owners built extensions on the house, each time
adding a new, partially separate basement compartment.

"There was one place in particular, maybe two, where you could, you
know, store stuff."

The occupants of the house were seen in town on occasion, sometimes
doing odd jobs like painting.

Still, Ms. Maldeis felt they didn't fit the mould of newcomers to the
area who normally are retirees or vacationers.

"These people didn't fit into that category. It was a little
odd.

"Many people in the village wondered, what the devil are they doing
here, what's going on down there?"

Sgt. Noonan said the drug bust remains under investigation, adding the
RCMP could place a restraining order on the house or even seek
forfeiture on it.