ACCUSED HITMAN QUIZZED IN BUST

A top drug broker suspected of trafficking cocaine in B.C. and of contract
killings in Quebec is to be grilled by police after a massive cocaine
seizure on the Vancouver waterfront.

While randomly inspecting containers Saturday at the Vanterm yard at the
foot of Clark Drive, Canada Customs officers uncovered 420 kilograms of
highgrade Colombian cocaine worth an estimated $50 million on the street.

Police say it was the largest drug bust in Canada this year.

Sources yesterday told The Province that suspected contract killer and drug
courier Sylvain Malacket, 34 known to have shipped large quantities of
Colombian Cali cartel drugs to Canada in the past will be questioned
about the latest shipment.

The cocaine cache arrived in Vancouver only three weeks after Malacket was
arrested on the Dutch West Indies island of Aruba and taken to Montreal,
where he is now in custody.

``He is known to be a major player in several large shipments in the
past,'' said one source about Malacket, who was arrested after a joint
investigation by Abbotsford and Montreal police and the Vancouver RCMP.

``He is kind of a facilitator for the cartel.''

Malacket, who slipped out of Canada while on $150,000 bail in Vancouver
after being charged with trafficking in $4 million worth of cocaine in
1996, is now charged with two contract killings in the Montreal area.

Montreal police confirmed that one of the victims a drug trafficker who
played on mob turf both in Vancouver and Montreal was suspected of being
a police informant.

RCMP also want to talk to Malacket about the brutal Dec. 21, 1995, torture
murders of Burnaby drug dealer and suspected police informant Eugene
Uyeyama and his pregnant wife Michelle.

Uyeyama is believed to have been targeted because he was suspected of
tipping police off to the shipment of 392 kilos of cocaine elaborately
concealed in Colombian factorysealed pots and pans intercepted by the RCMP
in early 1996.

Police sources said the latest drug seizure exceeds both the quantity and
value of the potsandpans shipment, which at the time was pegged at just
more than $40 million.

Police believe the cache of cocaine seized on the weekend may be part of a
larger shipment destined for Canada.

The concealment method used in the shipment was not as elaborate as with
the cocaine concealed in 2,400 of 6,500 pots and pans sent here in 1996.

But authorities said only the Colombian cartels have the sophistication and
power to organize such large shipments to Canada.

Canada Customs spokeswoman Paula Shore said the largest shipment
intercepted in Canada this year, before the arrival of the latest batch,
was in September in Halifax, where authorities hauled away 300 kilos of
cocaine.

Shore said Customs officers are happy the huge quantity of cocaine seized
will not make it to the streets of Vancouver.

Police and customs officers will not say whether those expected to take
delivery have been identified.

Police say concealment methods have varied. Columbian cocaine has been sent
in many disguises, they said. In one case, hollowedout broomsticks were
used to conceal a huge shipment of cocaine.

Authorities are to hold a press conference today to reveal more details
about the small mountain of cocaine seized on Saturday.

They believe the seizure will create a temporary shortage on the streets.