POLICE IN CALGARY MAKE BIG ECSTASY BUST

CALGARY -- Describing it as one of the largest drug busts in Canadian
history, law-enforcement officials in Calgary announced yesterday the
seizure of 120 kilograms of ecstasy powder that had been stashed in three
upright pianos.

The powder could have made more than 1.5 million euphoria-inducing pills
worth an estimated $52.5-million on the street, RCMP Corporal Patrick Webb
said.

Forty-year-old Kwong Yuen Chow of Richmond, B.C., has been charged with
importation and possession for the purposes of trafficking.

Police continue their investigation and more charges are likely, Cpl. Webb
said.

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency commercial-goods inspectors discovered
the drug on Oct. 16, when the pianos, shipped from Frankfurt, Germany,
arrived at Calgary International Airport.

The instruments were bound for Vancouver but were sent through customs in
Calgary, where inspectors said "they just didn't look right," Customs
spokesman Gordon Luchia said.

Tucked inside the pianos were 120 individually wrapped one-kilogram bags of
the powder. "Somebody went to a lot of work," Cpl. Webb said.

Officials called it the largest interception of illegal drugs in southern
Alberta, perhaps in Canada.

Until now, the largest drug seizure in southern Alberta had been two years
ago, when $12-million worth of cocaine was intercepted, Mr. Luchia said.

Last week, a Toronto man was charged with conspiracy after law-enforcement
agents found 50 one-kilogram packages of cocaine hidden in an upright piano
bound for Canada from Peru.

The cocaine was found in Miami.

The cocaine could have been worth several million dollars on the street, a
police spokesperson said.