CRACKING DOWN ON THE KHAT HOUSES

Tonnes of the illegal leafy substance is being brazenly smuggled into
Canada every year

The young couple were pleading with RCMP officers not to send them to jail.

The pair -- a 20-year-old British man and his 21-year-old American
girlfriend -- had just arrived at Pearson airport on a flight from
Britain. Now they were explaining to the Mounties that they didn't
know the leafy east African plant called khat that filled their
suitcases was illegal in Canada.

This incident happened last March, but it was a story that RCMP Cpl.
Cathy McCrory and her colleagues had heard many times before.

The young couple said it was love at first sight when they met in a
London hostel while backpacking. They wanted cash to travel together
and saw an advertisement in a local paper seeking couriers to bring
"tea" to Canada, for which they'd receive a free trip to Toronto and
200 Euros to spend.

Instead, they ended up in a Canadian jail and subsequently in
Brampton court, where the two were convicted of importing a
controlled substance and sentenced to time served. Then they were
deported -- she to California and he to London -- bringing an end to
their love affair. Neither will ever be allowed to enter Canada again.

"The girl was very naive and I felt sorry for her," McClorey recalls.
"Many of them don't know that khat is illegal in Canada."

It takes less than 48 hours to smuggle shipments of khat halfway
around the world from the growing fields in Kenya, Somalia and
Ethiopia to the streets of Toronto.

It comes by the kilo stuffed in plastic bags in travellers' luggage.
And it comes in larger air freight shipments -- sometimes labelled as
"fresh-cut flowers" -- almost always routed to fake addresses.

Portion Intercepted

In the end, tonnes of illegal khat enter Canada every year and only a
portion is intercepted. Seizures rise every year, but the amount
being shipped is also on the rise.

Although illegal in Canada and the United States, the drug is legal
in Britain and many parts of Africa and the Middle East. However, it
has a shelf life of only about three days before it loses potency.
That's why the smugglers are trying to get their shipments to North
America as quickly as possible and why Pearson is the khat gateway to
the Canadian market.

The RCMP and Canada Customs officers who intercept khat shipments at
Pearson say couriers -- who range from students to businessmen to
seniors -- are recruited through the Internet, newpaper ads or
word-of-mouth to smuggle the drug here on flights from Heathrow airport.

Many of the couriers say they are told by smugglers the khat is
herbal tea, being sent to health food stores in Canada.

Whether the bark-like plant arrives in a tourist's suitcase or in a
huge cargo box labelled "fresh-cut flowers," undercover police say
the shipments quickly change hands at Pearson to avoid further decay,
and in hours are distributed to a network of khat houses in the
Toronto area. Most of the khat is destined for an area about 15
minutes away from the airport, police say.

The RCMP and Toronto Police say they have intelligence that shows
most of the khat destined for the GTA is taken to highrise apartment
buildings along Dixon Rd., from Kipling Ave. east to Islington Ave.,
an area dubbed "Little Mogadishu" due to the large number of Somali
immigrants residing there.

Detectives say khat smugglers are becoming more brazen as they try to
keep up with the rising demand for the product. One Toronto man was
charged last December with recruiting as khat smugglers two northern
Ontario teens he met on an Internet dating site.

The teens were charged with importing a controlled substance and
appeared in Brampton court earlier this month. The arrests came when
police seized suitcases containing 45 kilos of khat. The girls told
police they were given $500 spending money, airline tickets and a
week's vacation in London.

Nasir Hudleh, also known as Mohamed Mohamed, 30, of Toronto, has also
been charged with conspiracy and importing a controlled substance. He
is currently before the courts.

Patrizia Giolti, of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), said
khat falls under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and is
illegal to import into the country.

Giolti said there were 530 khat seizures last year, worth $5.9
million, from couriers and cargo shipments at Pearson.

"The real concern regarding khat is that many individuals still do
not see this as a narcotic," Giolti says. "Serious consequences can
result for attempting to smuggle khat into Canada."

She said khat, also known by its scientific name Catha Edulis,
contains the active ingredients cathine and cathinone, which produces
a stimulant effect similar to amphetamine when the green parts of the
plant are chewed.

RCMP Insp. Steve Martin, head of the force's airport detachment, says
organized crime groups are behind the lucrative khat smuggling trade.
"These people have a network in place to get the harvest from Africa
to the streets of Toronto in 48 hours," Martin says. "The network is
fairly organized to have conduits in place."

Martin says confiscated khat is thrown in the garbage and the
couriers, many who are British citizens, are charged for importing a
controlled substance. If convicted they're deported and banned from Canada.

"The use of khat is fairly significant and there's a social cost to
families," Martin says. "One of our primary concerns is the social
impact to the community."

He said in many cases cabbies or couriers are paid to pick up the
khat shipments and take them to pre-arranged addresses in a bid to
elude authorities.

"They use unsuspecting citizens to pick it up from cargo," he says.
"There are usually people waiting for the shipments when they arrive."

Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner is on the front-line of the war
against khat. Most of the tonnes of the drug arriving in Canada end
up in his 23 Division, where it poses a variety of concerns.

Taverner said khat is widely available in his precinct and he's
concerned some cabbies are chewing the drug and getting high while driving.

"There are health and safety concerns with this drug," he says.
"There are no tests to determine if a driver is under the influence of khat."

Taverner said an 11-year-old boy was picked up by police last year
while bickering over a khat sale. The child was released because he
was too young to be charged.

"A large amount of money is being made through the sale of khat," he
says. "As police we are concerned as to where the money is going."

Taverner says newcomers can be denied Canadian citizenship if they've
obtained a criminal record from khat.

He says his officers routinely respond to domestic calls in the area
and in many cases the use, and spending of family money on khat by a
breadwinner, is a cause of the problem.

Khat is rumoured to be sold in some Toronto-area grocery stores
specializing in African products, but none is on sale in a number of
shops visited by a Sun reporter. Adebola Ajimotokan, 51, the owner of
Oyingbo African Market, on Jane St., said he doesn't sell khat for
two reasons: Because there's no demand from the Nigerian community,
to whom he caters, and because it is illegal.

A round bundle of khat consists of about a dozen 15-cm stems tied
together in a banana leaf. One bundle sells for $50-$90, depending on
supply and demand.

Ross McLeod -- a director of the private security firm, Intelligarde,
contracted to patrol buildings in Little Mogadishu -- says his
officers have seen the damage khat can do in their front-line patrols
of high-rise housing complexes in North Etobicoke.

"My concern is that khat will be used by young people in the rave
scene," McLeod says. "We probably have the largest khat operation in
Toronto. It is available at some places here 24/7."

McLeod said police and security have found and squashed six khat dens
that were operating in buildings he knows about.

"Women feature predominantly in the distribution and retail of khat,"
McLeod says as he patrols the buildings. "When we first came here the
drugs were being handled by women."

He said his officers have found Somali gang graffiti sprayed on some
of the buildings and there have been reports that members may be
involved in the khat trade.

Etobicoke North councillor Rob Ford said there have been complaints
from residents about the use of khat in some areas of his municipal ward.

"We have the largest Somali population in the city," Ford says of
Ward 2. "They are well-behaved people but we have a problem with a few."

Today, Toronto Police Consts. William Vollmar and Doug Woods are
patrolling "Little Mogadishu" and hearing first-hand concerns from
the community about the use of khat.

Vollmar has just returned from handing over donated basketball
equipment to a local community centre in a program called Etobicoke Strategy.

"Every community is different in Toronto," he says as residents
gather in a hallway. "The khat problem is getting a lot better out here."

Residents recall in the past there had been lineups of cabs outside
some buildings on certain days when khat arrived from Britain and
went on sale. It has to be sold in three days of being cut or it decays.

Community leader Mohamud Siad Togane is surrounded by countrymen in a
crowded coffee shop in the Kipling and Dixon Rd. area. Togane says
some khat dealers are so fearless that they once asked his wife to
act as a courier for a shipment of the drug. She refused.

"Khat chewing is an awful addiction," says Togane, a former professor
at Concordia University in Montreal. "It puts the user in a false
mood and divorced from reality."

"It is a very expensive habit and it is a vicious circle," Togane says.

"The khat takes over peoples' lives," he says. "They will borrow
money or do anything to get the drug."

Police commissioner Larry Tettman shows off bundles of Khat leaves
seized by the RCMP. The illegal plant, which produces a stimulant
effect similar to amphetamine, is being smuggled into Canada,
sometimes by unsuspecting travellers.

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TALE OF KHAT

WHAT: Khat (usually pronounced "cot"), also known as qhat, qat, gat,
chat, miraa, African tea and many other variations. It's a large
flowering evergreen shrub that grows in East Africa and Southern
Arabia. Its leaves, brownish-red and shiny when fresh, are chewed for
a euphoric effect. It can also be smoked, brewed as a tea or injected
as a liquid, but chewing is the most common form of use.

WHEN: Because khat leaves lose much of their potency -- and value --
within three days of being cut, they are generally shipped by air to
markets around the world, wrapped in plastic and kept moist to
maintain freshness.

WHERE: Use of khat is legal in some countries such as Britain and
Israel, but is a controlled or prohibited substance in most European
countries. In the U.S., khat is classified as a Schedule I narcotic,
the DEA's most restrictive category. In Canada, khat is a controlled
substance, theoretically available under prescription from an
authorized medical practitioner. Illegal possession or use of khat in
Canada is punishable, for a first offence, by a fine of up to $1,000
or a jail term of up to six months. Most of Canada's supply of khat
arrives by air from Britain. A bundle of 12 pieces of khat cut on an
East African hillside on Thursday morning can pass through Heathrow
and Pearson airports and be sold for $90 a bundle on the streets of
Toronto by Friday night or Saturday morning. Police consider northern
Etobicoke to be the GTA's centre of the khat trade.

WHY: Khat leaves contain naturally occurring psychoactive ingredients
known as cathinone -- a euphoric stimulant chemically similar to
amphetamine -- and cathine, a milder form of cathinone. There is a
body of opinion that khat is no more dangerous or addictive that
alcohol or marijuana. But it is classified as a drug of abuse by the
World Health Organization. Khat consumption can induce euphoria,
excitement and hallucinations, but prolonged use can also cause manic
behaviour, paranoia, and liver, heart and lung problems.