DEA ARRESTS 55 IN ECSTASY RING

DENVER (AP) - Drug dealers accused of flooding communities in
Colorado with Ecstasy, including the dose blamed for the death of a
16-year-old girl, supplied other drugs, including LSD,
methamphetamine and marijuana, authorities said.

Fifty-five people were arrested in Colorado and California on
Wednesday in what federal drug agents said was among the nation's
biggest Ecstasy distribution rings.

``It is certainly one of the largest in terms of rings, the number of
defendants brought together in one place,'' Drug Enforcement
Administration Administrator Asa Hutchinson said.

Three of those indicted are blamed in Brittney Chambers' death and
could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Chambers died in January after taking Ecstasy her friends bought for
her 16th birthday party in suburban Denver. She went into a coma
after taking the drug and died a few days later.

``As Brittney's friends and family can tell us, Ecstasy is an
agony,'' Hutchinson said.

Those arrested in Operation Green Clover - named for an Ecstasy pill
in the shape of a clover - face state and federal charges that
include distribution of Ecstasy, conspiracy and distribution
resulting in death. Eleven others were being sought.

The investigation began after a state trooper made an arrest last
August that resulted in the arrests of cadets at the Air Force
Academy and airmen at various Colorado bases.

Officers in California and Colorado seized 85,000 Ecstasy tablets,
2.5 kilograms of cocaine, 320 pounds of marijuana, five pounds of
methamphetamine, 40,000 doses of LSD, $1.36 million in cash, 13
vehicles and 36 weapons, said Bob Castillo, head of the DEA office in
Denver.