Pubdate: Wed, 06 Feb 2002
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Petti Fong

SURREY OFFICE RAIDED IN ANTI-DRUG SWEEP

Twelve Arrested As Seven Drug Laboratories Are Discovered In Fraser Valley, 
Kelowna

Police officers battered their way into a Surrey business office Tuesday as 
part of a province-wide clampdown on illegal drug laboratories that led to 
the arrest of a dozen people.

Seven methamphetamine laboratories were discovered in the Fraser Valley and 
Kelowna, and police seized a quantity of ecstasy and marijuana at the 
Surrey location.

Police said all 12 arrests were part of an investigation into organized 
crime links to the production and distribution of methamphetamine and 
ecstasy pills. (Methamphetamine and ecstasy are different drugs, although 
both are considered "uppers.")

Besides the business office in Surrey's industrial Port Kells area, 
residences in Chilliwack and Abbotsford were also entered under three 
search warrants executed Tuesday in the Fraser Valley.

Organized Crime Agency media spokeswoman Detective Constable Anne Drennan 
said six people were arrested at the two residences and business office.

Drennan said charges against the six arrested will be announced later this 
week.

Methamphetamine labs were found in the two residences, while the business 
location at 9347-193rd St. in Surrey yielded nearly 1,000 ecstasy pills, a 
quantity of powder believed to be ecstasy, a supply of marijuana and a 
handgun with ammunition.

In Kelowna, RCMP officers shut down five suspected labs and arrested six 
additional people.

Kelowna RCMP Constable Garth Letcher said the investigation began in 
September 2000 after police received reports of gang activities in the drug 
trade.

"There was a considerable amount of inter-agency cooperation throughout 
B.C. and western Canada to get to this point," Letcher said Tuesday.

The five men and one woman arrested in Kelowna will likely be charged with 
the production, distribution and trafficking of methamphetamine, Letcher said.

While police had no trouble entering the homes in Chilliwack and 
Abbotsford, Drennan said the entrance to the Surrey business office was 
securely locked.

"It was decided the safest and easiest way to get in was to use a battering 
ram we have attached to a Chevy Suburban," she said.

But the parking lot of the business office was too cramped for the Suburban 
to turn, so two officers used hand battering poles to knock out the glass 
window and doors.

Workers in the Surrey industrial area were surprised Tuesday morning to see 
police with battering rams near their offices.

Rich Harvey, a dry kiln operator at the Drytech Lumber warehouse across the 
street, said colleagues at his workplace planned to call police months ago.

"We noticed that nothing happened there during the day, but at night 
between midnight and 3 a.m., all these motorcycles showed up," Harvey said.

"We were going to call, but things got busy here and we put it off."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom