DRUG LAB DANGER 'EXTREME'

Police Don Protective Suits To Search West End House

Police aren't taking any chances with the potentially explosive drug
laboratory they uncovered Wednesday night in a West End house.

Seven cops scoured the two-storey home at 659 Valour Rd. yesterday,
cataloguing various illegal designer drug-manufacturing equipment -- while
clad from head to toe in protective suits with self-contained breathing units.

'VERY DANGEROUS'

"These labs are very dangerous. If you mix and match the chemicals, they
can give off poisonous gases, they can cause explosions, they're very
corrosive, so they're an extreme concern to us," said Sgt. Bill Stewart,
who heads the Winnipeg police Clandestine Lab Unit.

"We go in protected to the level above and beyond what we believe we should
be at, and then we can always downgrade from there. Better safe than sorry."

A local chemist with the Health Protection Branch of Canada identified
several chemicals in the house that he believed were possibly being used to
manufacture at least three different synthetic drugs, Stewart added.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Bob Johnson identified two of the drugs as
ecstasy and GHB (liquid ecstasy), two popular hallucinogens.

"We know it's probably the fastest-growing segment of the drug culture
right now. Other than crack cocaine, ecstasy and the other designer drugs
are moving in very quick," Johnson said.

A 33-year-old man, who lived in the six-room home, was facing numerous
charges, including producing ecstasy and GHB under the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act. His name wasn't released yesterday.

"This is a shock," said a next-door neighbour, who didn't want her name
published. "He was a very nice guy, a very quiet man."

The residential drug lab is only the second to be raided in Winnipeg.

Cops cleaned out a two-storey home at 910 Boyd Ave., in late July 2000
after discovering what they referred to as a "sophisticated"
methamphetamine and ecstasy lab.

Two brothers were charged in that raid.

'MORE INVOLVED'

After going through the cluttered 1,168-square-foot home yesterday,
officers said the Valour drug lab is even "more involved than Boyd,"
Stewart told reporters.

City cops -- who were supported by members of the RCMP, Winnipeg Fire and
Paramedic Service, and Manitoba Environment -- raided the home shortly
after 6 p.m. on information they received through the vice division.

Valour Road, between Wolever and Riddle avenues, was closed for most of
yesterday to make room for decontamination units that were set up on the
street and emergency vehicles.

Residents weren't evacuated.

"At this point, the hazard is within the house, not outside the house,"
Stewart said.

Police are expected to begin carting out equipment today.

Health officials will later determine whether the house requires demolition.

"This investigation can take several days and may, in fact, lead to that
house being torn down," Johnson said.

"From what I hear of these labs that are out there, they make me nervous.
Nobody wants one to be found in their neighbourhood."