PROBE OF MAJOR METH RING NETS 22 IN STATE

Crime: Investigation Leads To 100-Plus Arrests Nationwide And Seizure Of
Methamphetamine Ingredient

Federal authorities Thursday announced the arrests of more than 100 people
in 12 cities nationwide--including Los Angeles, Fresno and Riverside--for
allegedly smuggling tons of a methamphetamine-producing chemical from
Canada to California.

The arrests and the seizure of enough pseudoephedrine to produce 18,000
pounds of methamphetamine represent a marked expansion in a three-year
investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law
enforcement agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"This is an extraordinarily significant step in allowing us to shut down
this hopefully last supply chain for this precursor chemical for
methamphetamine," DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said in Washington,
where officials announced the arrests. The investigation, dubbed Operation
Mountain Express, originally targeted U.S. companies and individuals
illegally supplying methamphetamine producers with pseudoephedrine, used in
most over-the-counter cold medicines.

When those arrests dried up domestic sources of pseudoephedrine,
authorities say, drug traffickers turned to illegal suppliers in Canada,
with the chemical shipped to Chicago and Detroit before being transported
to meth producers in California.

Nationwide, Hutchinson and other law enforcement officials said, the
federal investigation led to the arrests Thursday of 58 people and the
seizure of 96 automobiles, businesses and homes. Recently, authorities
said, 67 additional people were arrested in connection with supplying
California drug producers with pseudoephedrine from Canada. Authorities
also said they have seized more than $2 million in cash.

In Los Angeles, a federal indictment unsealed Thursday charged 36 people
with drug trafficking in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Inland Empire is "considered to be the methamphetamine capital of the
world," the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. Twenty-two
defendants live in California, and 16 were in custody as of Thursday.

The 25-count indictment alleges a conspiracy in which the defendants
obtained huge quantities of pseudoephedrine, knowing that it would be
manufactured into methamphetamine.

If convicted, most of the Los Angeles area defendants would face mandatory
minimum sentences of 10 years in federal prison, and some could spend life
in prison without parole, authorities said.

"Today's indictment demonstrates that we will work diligently to cut off
new supply routes and to choke off the chemicals that have made
methamphetamine such a scourge in the Inland Empire," said John S. Gordon,
the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

In Washington, U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said the
investigation should significantly curb methamphetamine trafficking
throughout the United States. The huge pseudoephedrine seizures in this
case "prevented thousands of pounds of meth from being manufactured and
sold on the streets of our country," he said.

Though some defendants nationwide are of Middle Eastern descent and some
are in the United States illegally, federal authorities here and in
Washington said their investigation had turned up no indication that the
money used in the drug trafficking operation was funded by or for terrorist
activity.

"As a matter of course, we always look at where the money flows,"
Hutchinson said. "But there is no evidence of any link to terrorism."

Other cities where arrests were made by federal agents were Carlsbad,
Cleveland, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

Since the federal investigation began in 1999 with domestic supplies of
pseudoephedrine, authorities have arrested more than 300 people and seized
more than 30 tons of the chemical, as well as $16 million in U.S. currency.

The 16 California defendants already in custody or arrested Thursday
include Carlos Aguayo, 40, of Ontario; Khaled Ahmad, 23, of Jordan; Stephen
Almasri, 41, of Riverside; Amjad Ayeh, 34, of San Bernardino; Rasheed Aziz,
29, of Israel; and Rudy Barreras, 31, jailed in Orange County. Ahmad and
Aziz are suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Also arrested or in custody are Christian Boyd, 36, and Patrick Boyd, 35,
both of Pinon Hills; Nidal Hamayel, 45, of Moreno Valley; Mohammad Kahalah,
32, of Highland; Tony Musitef, 50, of Barstow; Akram Omar, 53, of Lake
Elsinore; Alfonso Pelayo, 41, of Huntington Park; Raheef Sanam, 39, address
unknown; Khaled Shoukhah, 38, in custody in a Los Angeles County jail; and
Fernando Valle, 57, in custody at the Tehachapi prison.