It started in S. Phila. but has connections to a Cambodian-run ring, police said.

Rachama Lao brought her husband and three children from Montreal to Philadelphia, ostensibly to go gambling.

But, police said yesterday, she had another purpose - and narcotics officers arrested the 30-year-old woman Saturday in the parking lot of the Roosevelt Motor Inn in the Northeast as she delivered 30,000 Ecstasy pills.

Lao's arrest capped an investigation that began Jan. 26 with a buy-and-bust in South Philadelphia and mushroomed to expose what police described as a Cambodian-run drug ring with links to Canada.

With seven people in custody, police yesterday showed off the 155 pounds of marijuana, nearly 40,000 Ecstasy pills and five weapons - two revolvers, two pistols and an Uzi - seized in the operation.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson put the street value of the drugs at $1.5 million and said narcotics officers were on track this year to surpass last year's $140 million in seizures.

The arrests also prompted Philadelphia police to alert federal authorities to the possibility that an Ecstasy lab operating in the Montreal area is producing thousands of pills for export to the United States.

The investigation took the unexpected turn Jan. 26, when narcotics officers arranged to buy 1,000 Ecstasy pills from a dealer at Third Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia, police said.

While the arrest was under way, officers noted two men in a car observing the operation and tracked the vehicle to the nearby 2800 block of South Fairhill Street.

As officers kept the car under surveillance, they saw a man enter and leave a house. When they stopped him, they found he was carrying hundreds of Ecstasy pills and arrested him, police said.

Police raided the house, owned by Roberck Suom, 24, and found more pills and the weapons, officials said. They arrested Suom and two others. Investigators also searched a coffee shop operated by Suom in the 2200 block of South Seventh Street and found the 155 pounds of marijuana hidden in sealed coffee cans.

Investigators, including Sgt. Joseph McCloskey and Officers Thomas Liciardello and Michael Spicer, in the meantime learned of the shipment from Canada and went to the motel parking lot Saturday to meet Lao.

Police said Lao handed over the drugs while her husband and three children, including a toddler, waited in their room.

Capt. Chris Werner of Narcotics Field Unit 2 said police believe Lao's husband had no knowledge of her actual business in Philadelphia.

She told police she worked in a massage parlor in Montreal and had been promised $10,000 in Canadian funds for the delivery.

Bail was set at $10 million for Suom and $1 million for Lao, according to court records. Both are in custody. Police said Lao's family returned to Canada.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/16630701.htm