COURT SECURITY TIGHT FOR FIVE MEN, WOMAN ACCUSED IN $60M BUST

Courtroom security was cranked up at Kingston's provincial courthouse
yesterday for a brief appearance by six people charged in last week's
seizure of $60 million worth of cocaine.

The accused - five men and a woman, all from Quebec - have been in custody
at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee since their arrest Friday.

Spectators were barred from the courtroom while the five men, heavily
guarded, were brought up from the cells and placed in the prisoner's dock
for a bail hearing.

Additional police wearing bulletproof Kevlar vests were stationed inside
the locked courtroom when they entered.

The room had already been searched for bombs or weapons possibly hidden
among the benches.

Once all five were present, the doors were opened and the public allowed in.

The formalities were brief. Acting on behalf of all five men, local defence
lawyer Clyde Smith waived reading of the charges against Richard Thibault,
45, of Aylmer, Julien Loiselle, 36, of Montreal, Richard Rivers, 40, of
Cantley, and Normand Denault, 40, and Luc St. Onge, 44, both of Gatineau.
He then had their bail hearing continued to tomorrow without evidence being
called.

The lone woman connected to the group, 47-year-old Sandra St. Onge of
Gatineau, was brought in separately, but the outcome was the same. Her
lawyer, Michael Woogh, put her bail hearing over tomorrow as well.

The RCMP held a press conference at the Kingston detachment Friday to show
off the results of a six-month investigation that led to the arrests. They
lined one wall of an office with 590 kilograms of cocaine packed in bricks.

Police haven't disclosed where the drugs were intercepted or how they are
allegedly linked to the six people in custody.

RCMP Chief Superintendent John MacLaughlan has credited police agencies in
eight countries with helping in making the bust. Assets worth an estimated
$9 million, including property in Ontario and luxury homes in the Turks and
Caicos Islands, have been frozen as a result of the investigation.

The six people currently under arrest are facing multiple drug and
money-laundering charges. More people may yet be arrested, police say.

Authorities say there are links between the smuggling operation, a
revolutionary army faction in Colombia and an as yet unidentified criminal
organization in Canada.