VA. ECSTASY RING EXPOSED, BROKEN, TASK FORCE SAYS 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.

Staff writer Brooke A. Masters contributed to this report.