MEXICAN SUPPLIERS FILLING VOID LEFT BY U.S. METH LABS

Since Crackdown Here, 80 Percent Of American Users' Supply Comes From
South, DEA Says

CHATTANOOGA, TENN. -- Thanks to tougher U.S. laws, fewer people are
cooking up batches of meth in dangerous homemade labs, but that
doesn't mean the supply has dried up. Eighty percent or more of
America's methamphetamine habit now comes from Mexico, law enforcement
officials say.

That means U.S. drug agents are changing how they fight this
particular drug war -- looking to stop Mexican traffickers on
interstate highways instead of raiding small-time meth labs in
kitchens and backyard sheds.

"These people are not involved to satisfy their own drug habits," said
U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick of Knoxville. "They are involved for money."

State and federal laws that restrict purchases of the decongestant
pseudoephedrine -- a key ingredient in making the addictive stimulant
- -- have sharply reduced rural, clandestine labs.

'A global issue'But those labs have been replaced by superlabs in
Mexico and by Mexican-run labs in some American border states, DEA
spokesman Rusty Payne said. They are supplied with bulk shipments of
pseudoephedrine and ephedrine originating mostly in China, India and
Germany, he said.

"The issue now is international chemical control," Payne said. "When
these chemicals are diverted onto the illegal market, that is a global
issue."

Payne said the "growth of international drug trafficking
organizations, specifically meth production, has created a huge amount
of supply in the United States. They have sort of outdone the small
toxic labs."

'Strong user base' existsGregg Sullivan, an assistant U.S. attorney in
Chattanooga, said people who made meth in East Tennessee's clandestine
labs "created a strong user base."

"Now Mexican organizations have come in and filled that need," he
said. "They are bringing in the product in very creative ways."

But U.S. officials say Mexico is taking its own steps to halt the
illegal flow of meth.

Mexico has limited the sale of pills containing pseudoephedrine to
licensed pharmacies and it required the medicine to be stocked behind
the counter. It has prohibited customers from buying more than three
boxes of pills with pseudoephedrine and mandated prescriptions for
larger doses.

In March, agents in Mexico City seized $206 million in a meth case
that DEA chief Karen Tandy then described as the largest drug cash
seizure ever.

Tandy said U.S drug agents working with Mexican police discovered the
money -- profits of methamphetamine sold in the United States --
stuffed inside walls, suitcases and closets in one of Mexico City's
wealthiest neighborhoods.

Mexican agents also seized eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a
pill-making machine during the raid in Lomas de Chapultepec, a
neighborhood of walled compounds that is home to ambassadors and
business magnates. Seven people were arrested.

In addition to the U.S. money, officials found 200,000 euros and
157,500 pesos, which totals about $280,000.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said the money was linked
to a major pseudoephedrine trafficking network run by a native of
China who had gained Mexican citizenship.

In Tennessee, which once led the nation in clandestine drug labs,
tougher new laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine have reduced
the number of clandestine labs from 1,327 in 2004 to just 336 last
year, a state report shows.

Hazards still existTommy Farmer, Tennessee's meth task force director,
questioned whether the latest number was accurate and argued that
domestic production of meth "is nowhere near an acceptable level." The
hazards of exposure to toxic chemicals and fumes from the drug
manufacture are still there, he said.

Dedrick said law enforcement agents are now more focused on
intercepting interstate traffickers. "They will be seen more and
more," he said. "We will see increased numbers in cases involving
foreign nationals."

Payne said the DEA has offices in more than 50 countries, but "we
can't just go into another country and arrest somebody."

"There is no way we are going to solve problems of international
chemical trafficking without global cooperation," he said.