PARTY DRUG'S POPULARITY ALARMS SUBURBAN AUTHORITIES

Local and federal authorities said they have broken up a suburban drug
ring that has sold as many as 200,000 tablets of the party drug
Ecstasy -- valued at more than $5 million -- in one of the largest
operations exposed by police in the Washington area.

The arrests, announced yesterday by a Loudoun County task force and
members of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, are the latest
sign that the demand for Ecstasy is growing throughout the region,
especially among young, suburban, recreational users.

Three Fairfax men were arrested on state drug charges and five others
were arrested on federal charges after a seven-month undercover
investigation that also led authorities to Maryland and the District,
Loudoun officials said. Spokeswomen for the DEA and the U.S.
attorney's office in Virginia declined to comment because details of
the case are under court seal.

"It's amazing how fast it has been coming on," said Charlie T. Deane,
chief of police in Prince William County, where detectives have
infiltrated a similar ring. "We're concerned that parents are not as
aware as they should be about the risks of this drug."

Authorities say Ecstasy -- regularly associated with rave parties and
club culture -- is viewed by many young users as a safe alternative to
other drugs, though its long-term effects are largely unknown.

The drug is popular both for its relatively low price -- from $20 to
$40 a tablet -- and its euphoric, stimulant and hallucinogenic
qualities. Known officially as MDMA and commonly as Lover's Speed,
Adam, Disco Biscuits and the Love Drug, Ecstasy's recent surge is
often compared with the spread of crack cocaine in the mid-1980s.

DEA Administrator Donnie R. Marshall testified before the U.S. Senate
last month that "the widespread growth of Ecstasy use has been nothing
short of alarming."

According to DEA statistics, almost 10 percent of high school seniors
have tried the drug, double what was estimated in 1995. In 2000, DEA
agents seized more than 3 million tablets of Ecstasy, a 200 percent
increase over the previous year.

Officials in Virginia and Maryland have uncovered increasingly larger
Ecstasy sales operations and have been working on aggressive
educational campaigns regarding the drug.

Leesburg police and the Loudoun County sheriff's office worked with
the DEA to break up the latest ring, purchasing about 1,000 tablets
and seizing more than $42,000 in cash during the investigation. Brian
Walk, 19, of Herndon, Micha Kapourachali, 18, of Centreville, and
Michael Schneider, 25, of Herndon, were arrested on charges of
distribution of MDMA. According to documents filed in Loudoun District
Court, the men allegedly sold Ecstasy to undercover Loudoun detectives
or informants.

The drugs were sold in large quantities -- in some cases 200 pills in
one transaction -- at shopping centers and hotels in Sterling.

The investigation was spurred by an undercover buy of a single Ecstasy
pill in September in Loudoun County, said sheriff's Lt. Bill
Windemuth, who heads the department's narcotics division. He said that
case led detectives to an 18-month-old ring that had been supplying
the drug "all over Washington."

Windemuth said Ecstasy cases have become the number one priority for
his 10-officer narcotics unit. "It's just everywhere," Windemuth said.
"The intelligence information we're getting is that it's nothing to be
able to go out and buy it."

In Loudoun alone, detectives seized about 4,000 pills this fiscal
year, compared with 495 last year, Windemuth said. The year before,
they seized 15 pills.

In Prince William County, detectives have been working to take down a
ring organized by young, suburban men that had been run out of
Chantilly, Centreville and Prince William. Sources close to the
investigation say that ring was importing hundreds of thousands of
dollars in high-grade marijuana and Ecstasy from Oregon and Texas, and
that it might have been making millions of dollars in sales throughout
the region.

Police inadvertently made the largest Ecstasy bust in Prince William
history last month after a man linked to that ring was shot to death
outside his Bristow town house. Police found thousands of Ecstasy
pills and more than 50 pounds of marijuana in the house while
investigating the slaying.