DEA BUSTS 3 MEN IN DRUG PROBE

Stimulant Said To Have Come From Canada

Three Wayne County men were arrested Thursday as part of a nationwide
crackdown on rings smuggling large quantities of a Canadian-made
cold-medicine ingredient into the country for use in the illegal
manufacture of methamphetamine.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are also looking for a fourth Wayne
County man. DEA agents -- with the aid of local law-enforcement agencies --
made arrests in several cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Houston,
Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The rings were trafficking pseudoephedrine, a stimulant used in cold
medicine that is controlled in the United States but unregulated in Canada.

The crackdown was part of an antidrug operation called Operation Mountain
Express.

In Detroit, six-count indictments opened Thursday in U.S. District Court
named Mohamad Mahmoud Jafar, 45, and Haidar Auon, 38, both of Dearborn
Heights, and Assaad Hamdan, 38, and Mohamad Kassir, 33, both of Dearborn.

The men are charged with conspiracy to possess and conspiracy to import a
listed chemical knowing or having reason to believe that the chemical would
be used to manufacture a controlled substance.

If convicted, the men face up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

Kassir's pretrial hearing was scheduled for Jan. 22, and he was released on
a $10,000 personal bond. Jafar has a detention hearing scheduled for 1 p.m.
today. Auon's arraignment will be completed Jan. 17 to give him time to
hire an attorney.

Hamdan has not yet been arrested, said Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the
U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.

According to the indictment, shipments of pills would be transported in a
variety of vehicles, undeclared, with bills of lading that disguised the
true nature of the chemical.

The drug was to be sold to Mexican drug operations in the southwestern
United States and Mexico for the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Susan Feld, special agent with the DEA in Detroit, said the men arrested
locally acted as brokers. "They would sell it to other people in California."

Balaya said the drug operations nationwide were not linked. "It's not one
large conspiracy," she said.

According to the DEA, 54 people were arrested nationwide Thursday, and 96
vehicles and $350,000 were seized. To date, Operation Mountain Express has
seized over 30 tons of pseudoephedrine, 181 pounds of methamphetamine, made
over 300 arrests and shut down nine illegal laboratories.

Also on Thursday in another drug bust at a hotel in Taylor, the U.S.
Customs Service arrested three men on charges of trafficking in
pseudoephedrine. Kamal Mohamed Nagi, Saleh Mohsen Elmathil, and Norbert
Kurzawa have a detention hearing scheduled in U.S. District Court at 1 p.m.
today.