MASSIVE 2.1 MILLION ECSTASY HAUL SEIZED IN L.A.

LOS ANGELES, - More than two million tablets of the dance party drug
Ecstasy with a street value of about $40 million were seized in what
U.S. authorities Wednesday called the largest ever such haul in the
country. The hallucinogenic drug, also known as MDMA, which users say
makes them feel extraordinarily happy, was seized at Los Angeles
airport on Saturday after arriving on an Air France plane from Paris
in a 15-box shipment labeled pencils but which contained 2.1 million
tablets.

Officials at a press conference Wednesday said the drug probably came
from the Netherlands and that the seizure was the largest of haul of
Ecstasy in U.S. history.

Customs, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials told
a news conference they arrested three people from the Los Angeles area.

They are also looking for a 26-year-old Los Angeles man alleged to be
the leader of an international trafficking ring responsible for
importing vast amounts of Ecstasy into both the United States and Europe.

Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas called the ring "a drug
organization with tentacles throughout the world."

The same ring is though to be behind imports of more than 1,000 pounds
(2,200 kilos) of Ecstasy found in San Francisco, Germany, Italy and
Los Angeles over the past seven months.

The investigation was sparked by discovery in December last year of a
shipment of about 100 pounds (220 kilos) of Ecstasy moving from a
FedEx shipping facility in Memphis and addressed to a hair salon in
Upland, Calif. The drugs were delivered and four suspects were arrested.

DEA agent Mark Trouville said the various hauls of Ecstasy, first
linked with mass dance "raves" popular in northern Europe, signaled "a
potentially explosive epidemic" in the United States.

Seizures of Ecstasy in the United States have increased dramatically
over the past year. The Customs Service said it had seized nearly 8
million tablets over the last 10 months compared to 3.5 million
tablets in 1999.