'UNSTABLE' ECSTASY WARNING TO REVELLERS

Drug traffickers are flooding the UK with millions of pounds worth of
unstable ecstasy pills in preparation for the millennium, investigators
warned yesterday.

Customs and excise has seized 325kg of ecstasy, approximately 1.3m tablets,
since October - more than its entire haul for 1998. The national criminal
intelligence service believes that criminal gangs are shipping large amounts
of the drug from Holland to feed demand for parties and raves between
Christmas and new year.

The agency warned that many of the tablets, marked M, Y2K and 2000, will be
particularly dangerous because short cuts have been taken in the
manufacturing process. The pills are being made in bulk, and some will be
three or four times more powerful than normal, said a source. "Our fear is
that a lot of people might consider taking ecstasy for the first time on New
Year's Eve because it is such a special occasion."

Criminals in the UK have started setting up drug factories to make the
pills. NCIS said gangs are spending up to pounds 100,000 to equip
laboratories to produce the highest yields and have smuggled the chemical
ingredients from China and eastern Europe.

One drug baron hired a qualified chemist and paid him pounds 10,000 a day,
the source said. Eight synthetic drug factories have been discovered in
Britain this year and 39 people arrested.

"It is a high profit, low risk enterprise," the source added. "They are not
interested in whether the drugs are safe or not, and the buyers can hardly
go back to the manufacturer and complain. We believe dealers will be trying
to sell these pills at every street party and celebration."

Nick Wilson, head of the drugs section at NCIS, said that the millennium
offered drug traffickers the perfect opportunity to expand their markets.

"The festive season, with its emphasis on extended partying, has created an
unprecedented demand for dangerous drugs, a demand that organised crime is
only too happy to meet. The relentless criminal pursuit at any human cost
has created a highly dangerous environment. People who buy illegal drugs
have no way of knowing the true content of what they are buying."