400 ARRESTED NATIONWIDE IN FEDERAL CRACKDOWN ON METH

WASHINGTON - Facing growing criticism that the federal government is not
doing enough to combat methamphetamine use, the Justice Department on
Tuesday announced the results of a weeklong raid of drug suppliers and
manufacturers and unveiled a Web site aimed at dissuading teen-agers from
taking up the drug.

Operation Wildfire, billed as the first nationally coordinated
investigation to target methamphetamine, resulted in more than 400 arrests
and the dismantling of 56 clandestine drug laboratories nationwide,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Police and drug agents
found 30 children in the makeshift labs when they were raided, officials said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and DEA Administrator Karen Tandy also
announced the launch of http://www.justthinktwice.com, a teen-oriented Web
site run by the DEA. The site features graphic pictures of drug users'
rotting teeth, before-and-after pictures of methamphetamine users and other
warnings about the perils of methamphetamine abuse. "Some say it's great,
but it's really your worst nightmare," the Web site says.

Tuesday's news conference marked the second time this month that the Bush
administration has sought to focus attention on the federal government's
efforts to contain methamphetamine trafficking and use. Gonzales joined
White House officials in Tennessee on Aug. 18 to announce the creation of
another Web site, www.methresources.gov, and a $16 million treatment
program aimed at those who abuse the drug.

Tandy said Tuesday that the latest methamphetamine arrests show the federal
government's "commitment to extinguishing this plague."

"Meth has spread like wildfire across the United States," Tandy said. "It
has burned out communities, scorched childhoods and charred once happy and
productive lives beyond recognition."

The announcements follow escalating demands from local and state officials
for more federal help in targeting methamphetamine, a stimulant
particularly prevalent in poorer and rural communities with few resources
to combat it.

Methamphetamine poses a significant safety threat to law enforcement
officials, who often encounter dangerous home laboratories stocked with
hazardous ingredients like battery acid.