Vidman

That's quite the drug bust at the Toronto airport yesterday, eh? What were those curriers thinking?? Well.. they weren't!!! If they had the idea that they could get through with all that just strapped around their bodies and hidden in coats, I wonder how many other people tried the same thing and succeeded! They must have known about others who got through no problem, and thought they could do the same.

Sure makes you wonder about security in the airport.... or rather, lack of!

-=dån=-

AdRiaN

I think the alleged $1 per pill carried across the border was probably a decent explanation for the motivation of these people. Drug "mules" go through some pretty extreme lengths to get the job done (ie. swallowing bags of drugs, or the more intimate "anal" method).

By the way, I hope everybody noticed yet another example of how police inflate the value of their busts. It's been quite some time since E sold for $40 per pill.


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AdRiaN

SoundStream

Anyone know where there is an article on this event? Can someone post it, or at least provide a link to it? This is the first I have heard of it. Thanx.

Cheers ... Ian

bucky

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/e_may18.html


$5M in Ecstasy seized at airport

6 arrested in largest Canadian bust

By TOM GODFREY-- TORONTO SUN

A Toronto man and five West Coast men have been arrested in a sting operation of a global drug smuggling ring that led to the largest seizure of Ecstasy in Canadian history.

Police seized 170,000 Ecstasy pills --worth $5 million -- destined for sale at raves in Toronto, which officers described as the rave capital of North America.

"This is the largest seizure in Canadian history," said RCMP Supt. Ben Soave, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. "The drugs were destined for the Greater Toronto area market."

It was the second major Ecstasy bust in a week. Last Thursday, customs officers at Montreal's Dorval airport seized 144,000 pills arriving from Belgium.

Soave said officers were tipped to a shipment arriving at Pearson airport and allowed three of the drug-laden couriers to go through customs so they could be followed.

The couriers were tracked to a downtown hotel where they were to meet a man and hand over the shipment, he said.

Police believe the Ecstasy was presold to traffickers who supply a network of dealers who sell the pills at raves.

Organized crime rings in the Netherlands and Canada are behind the smuggling, Soave said.

Soave said the pills are bought in bulk in the Netherlands for about $1 a pill and couriers are paid $1.50 for each pill they smuggle here. The pills sell at raves for up to $35 each.

He said the seized pills were destined for Toronto raves this long weekend.

"This is a very dangerous drug," Soave said. "I believe Ecstasy has reached epidemic proportions in this country."

Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner said 19 people have died from Ecstasy use in Ontario.

"We believe up to 80% of young people attending raves take these drugs," Taverner said.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Bill Matheson said the pills were brought into Canada taped to the ankles, calves and waists of the couriers and sewn into their clothes.

"This is the blatant, in-your-face trafficking of Ecstasy," he said. "It's a very poor job because traffickers don't care."

Charged with several drug importing offences are: Fred Soufane, 48, Tony Howard Hairsine, 26, and Lien Chi Toon, 56, of Burnaby, B.C.; Lai Lim Yip, 47, and Poking Ma, 35, of Vancouver; and Truong Tri Huynh, 27, of Toronto.

They return for bail hearings today.

SoundStream

That article is quite a bit different from the one that I eventually found. The article I found states that two of the people involved were women, yet the one above states that they were all men.

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Thursday, May 18, 2000

Police ecstatic at capture of sloppy pill smugglers

$5-million worth of Ecstasy barely hidden in clothes

Adrian Humphreys
National Post

Two women and three men stepped off a 6 p.m. flight from Paris to Toronto with $5-million worth of the trendy drug Ecstasy so poorly hidden under their clothes that police officers were amazed at the unsightly bulges and sloppy attempt at concealment.

The bust Tuesday night turned out to be the largest single seizure of the drug in Canada. It was found packed in plastic and sewn into the lining of several bomber jackets and wrapped together in nylon stockings and slung, belt-like, around their waists.

"That is a very poor job. You would never see a heroin courier or a cocaine courier do such a lousy job of packaging drugs and bringing it in so blatantly," said Staff Sergeant Bill Matheson, commander of the RCMP's Airport Drug Enforcement Unit.

The jackets weighed pounds more than they would normally. The lining sagged and drooped from the weight of the drugs and the restitching was sloppy.

As if to erase any doubt that the material was drug-related, the plastic bags were stamped with pictures of green marijuana leaves.

When police unpacked and weighed the cache, they found about 170,000 Ecstasy pills.

Many of the 170,000 thick, baby blue tablets -- each imprinted with a butterfly, denoting the illicit drug laboratory in the Netherlands where they were made -- would likely have been consumed at raves in and around Toronto over the long weekend, police said.

"We know that Toronto is becoming known as the rave capital of North America and, unfortunately, the drug Ecstasy is connected to the raves," said RCMP Superintendent Ben Soave, head of a joint task force fighting organized crime.

Ecstasy and raves, all-night dance parties, have been under intense scrutiny in Ontario, and a coroner's inquest is underway in Toronto examining the death of a student who collapsed at a rave last October. It is one of 13 Ecstasy-related deaths in Ontario since 1998.

The five couriers are from the Vancouver area. One of the couriers, a 47-year-old woman, is alleged to be a "controller," who watched over the junior couriers on the flight, police sources said.

The group is linked to an Asian-based organized crime group, police added.
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Cheers ... Ian

Vidman

Imagine if you were one of the hotel maids, and found a couple packs of them while cleaning up!

-=dån=-

EEEmazingPete

you can also watch the pres-conf @ cp24.com

pete

cRAVEr

"We believe up to 80% of young people attending raves take these drugs," Taverner said.


ITS ABOUT TIME THEY STOPPED SAYING WE KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank god some of them high class folk are on our side...

cRAVEr
newevolutionproductions@hotmail.com

"join the new evolution" - july 2, 2000 25 Djs 6 Mcs - 1 awesome party. once you join our evolution theres NO turning back

eakers

I don't understand how it can be said that the drugs were destined for sale at raves. I know plenty of people at school who have never been to a rave but dose every weekend.
This is a very frustrating time for the community.
*kathryn.

FrogStar

Lai Lim Yip 47 and Poking Ma 35 are both females Ian.

Vidman

Did anyone first think that this topic was about boobs?

-=dån=-