FEDS PUT ECSTASY IN CROSSHAIRS

In tablet form it often comes stamped with the symbol of a luxury car
or the image of a Buddha, and it provides a blast of euphoria and
energy that override the body's need to sleep, eat or drink, sometimes
with lethal consequences.

The powerful mood-enhancing drug Ecstasy, favored among suburban
teenagers, is now flowing into the United States in record amounts,
with New Jersey one of the key distribution centers, authorities say.

Yesterday, U.S. Customs officials formally declared war against the
drug, warning that trafficking in Ecstasy is rising at an alarming
rate.

To combat the problem, Customs authorities said the agency has created
a national task force to coordinate all cases dealing with the drug
and is training a pack of drug-detection dogs to sniff out smugglers.

"The new measures we're taking are designed to keep the Ecstasy
problem from becoming a full-fledged epidemic," said Customs
Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Since Oct. 1, Customs reports that national seizures of the drug have
reached nearly 4 million doses -- an all-time high. More than $13
million worth of the drug -- enough for nearly a half-million doses --
has been seized by Customs authorities in New Jersey this year.

Ida Almieda, a senior intelligence research specialist for the Customs
Service, said seizures in New Jersey for the year 2000 have already
outstripped seizures for all of 1999, with agents confiscating some
299 pounds of the drug. Additional seizures have been made by local
authorities.

U.S. Customs officials say New Jersey, because of the high volume of
European traffic that passes through Newark International Airport, has
become a hub for the importation, ranking a close second in seizures
behind those at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

"We're seeing it in amounts like we've never seen before," said Martin
Ficke, associate special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Service
for New Jersey.

A federal intelligence report obtained by The Star-Ledger said the
primary source of the drug is The Netherlands, where pills are
produced in mobile labs at the rate of 1 million a day for as little
as 5 cents each.

The most recent New Jersey haul came earlier this month when agents
intercepted some $3 million of the pills that were brought into Newark
airport from The Netherlands en route to distribution in the Miami
club and party scene.

Another $5 million shipment of the drug was found in the luggage of a
Dutch couple who were arrested after they tried to claim their bags in
October. The two were sentenced earlier this month to five years in
federal prison without parole.

Though much of the Ecstasy shipments that pass through Newark are
headed for other cities, some of it is clearly finding its way into
New Jersey towns. According to federal officials, many local law
enforcement agencies in northern New Jersey are reporting that use of
the drug appears to be increasing among high school and college students.

The prevalence of the drug in suburban New Jersey first drew
widespread attention last summer when a rave party at the Mennen
Sports Arena in Morris Township resulted in 80 drug arrests, with
police carrying 15 people to area hospitals for treatment of
drug-related illnesses, many believed to have been linked to Ecstasy.

Last November, police in Hackensack found two victims of an overdose
dead in a Meadowlands-area hotel room after a concert. Earlier this
month, police in Saddle Brook arrested four people after a
room-service call uncovered what was described as a drug orgy
involving Ecstasy.

In December, Somerset County authorities charged 27 people following a
three-month undercover probe into drug use among the local rave party
scene.

"It's primarily seen as a white, suburban drug," popular among high
schoolers and college students, said Capt. Jim Durkin of the Union
County Narcotics Strike Force. "Increasingly," Durkin said, "we are
seeing more and more Ecstasy."

Morris County Prosecutor John Dangler said it is fast becoming the "in
drug" for affluent suburban teens. "It's a growing problem."

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said use of the drug now appears
to be spreading from the suburban areas into the inner cities, with
suburban dealers peddling the product at Newark-area nightclubs.

Developed in 1912 by a German pharmaceutical firm as an appetite
suppressant, the drug -- chemical name: 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
or MDMA -- has been a factor in the drug scene for years, but only
recently has begun to come into its own as a major problem,
authorities say.

The drug is known in some circles as a "love drug" because of its
ability to reduce inhibitions, making it well-suited to the all-night
parties and "rave" clubs that are sweeping the youth scene.

Officials say studies have shown that the drug has a deadly downside:
the danger of memory loss, depression, psychotic disorders, and
permanent brain damage and birth defects. Kelly called the drug "a
lobotomy in tablet form."

According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report, the pills,
which sell from $20 to $30 a pop, are most frequently distributed at
rave parties, clubs and rock concerts, and as the rave scene is
expanding, so is the drug use.

"It's everywhere," said Thomas Manifase, the assistant special agent
in charge of the agency's New Jersey operations. "Seizures are up 750
percent nationally."

Manifase said there have been reports of increasing deaths nationally,
with victims suffering from overheating and exhaustion, among other
symptoms, and said rave promoters -- aware of the dangers of
dehydration among Ecstasy users -- routinely charge $8 to $9 a bottle
for water to help partiers cool down.

Ficke said U.S. law enforcement authorities are working closely with
Dutch officials to crack down on the problem there and said joint
efforts between U.S. and Dutch police have resulted in the closure of
some 40 labs last year. New production operations, however, are
opening as fast as police can close the old ones.

Sources say many of the couriers arrested in the United States have
agreed to cooperate and identify their contacts in Europe.

Yesterday, Kelly said the formation of the task force will allow
officials to meet daily to pool information and devise strategies to
cope with the problem, while working to coordinate efforts to stem the
smuggling tide with the aid of other law enforcement agencies.

Kelly noted that 13 drug-sniffing dogs are already being trained to
detect Ecstasy and said such dogs will soon be placed at all major
airports and border crossings.

Authorities say investigations have already revealed that Israeli and
Russian organized crime syndicates have forged relationships with
European traffickers and have "gained control over a significant
portion of the European market" and have become the "primary sources
to U.S. distribution groups."

The links between Israeli and Russian crime groups were spotlighted in
a case developed by U.S. authorities in New Jersey late last year in
which Customs inspectors at Port Newark uncovered a cache of Ecstasy
pills hidden inside the gas tank of a BMW being shipped from Germany
to Ohio. The case, authorities said, resulted in the arrest of five
Russian citizens with ties to a major Israeli smuggling group.