METH CASES COULD NET TERROR LINK

Law Enforcement Emphasizes Connection Still Unproven

San Bernardino - A case set to go to trial the next several months
that targeted importers of of pseudoephedrine and large
methamphetamine labs in San Bernardino and Riverside may also net a
few people involved in funneling money to possible terrorist
organizations in the Middle East.

It is not known for certain whether these Middle East organizations
are linked to terrorist activities, authorities said.

While the link has yet to be proven, a supervisor with a
Riverside-based drug task force said intelligence information his
officers have gathered indicates there may be a terrorist connection.

"When information comes to us we follow it up," said Sgt. Rod Crisp,
with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. "From our analysis it
appears that's the case."

Crisp is a supervisor for the Inland Narcotics Clearing House, also
known as INCH. His group is in charge of performing analyses of drug
activity in both the San Bernardino and Riverside county areas.

He wouldn't go into any more detail about the link because it may
compromise ongoing and future investigations, he said.

Andy Duran, is the special agent supervisor for the California
Department of Justice and the supervisor for the San Bernardino County
West End Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Pseudoephedrine is one of the main ingredients used in the manufacture
of methamphetamine, Duran said. In his two years on his current
assignment, he guessed anywhere between 50 and 60 percent of the large
pseudoephedrine busts involve people of Middle Eastern descent.

"It takes quite a bit of pseudoephedrine (to make the drug)," Duran
said. "A lot of times they are involved in the importation."

Jose Martinez, public information officer for the DEA in Los Angeles
referenced an operation known as Mountain Express II and Mountain
Express III. Martinez confirmed that many of the pseudoephedrine
seizures and arrests related to those seizures between January of 2000
and January of 2002 involved people who originally came from the
Middle East.

The primary focus of Mountain Express II was transport cells from
Canada, he said. The majority of those traffickers were of Middle
Eastern descent.

The Mountain Express III operation targeted the bulk suppliers of
pseudoephedrine in Canada as well as the traffickers who sell the drug
to Mexican nationals who operate meth labs in the San Bernardino and
Riverside area, he said.

There were approximately 89 major pseudoephedrine traffickers caught
during that time. The case is scheduled to go to court within the next
several months, he said.

Lt. Bart Gray, with the Regional Methamphetamine Task Force out of the
San Bernardino Sheriff's Department said his multi-agency task force
seized 373 clandestine drug labs in 2002. The task force seized 123
lab-related items, such as chemicals which could be used to make
methamphetamine.

Gray said, that number represents 35 percent of California's total
meth busts for that time period and 5 percent of the nation's totals
for last year.

Gray is in charge of the street enforcement unit for the meth task
force.

Despite what may look like a bona fide connection between labs and
terrorist cells, a press release regarding arrests in both Mountain
Express II and III negated such speculation.

During a January 2002 press conference, Asa Hutchinson administrator
of the DEA said the agency had not uncovered any positive links
between the traffickers and terrorist networks.

"There is no indication of a terrorist connection to any of these
operations," he said. "It is standard procedure that whenever we have
an investigation we follow the money."

Hutchinson said investigators would continue to follow the money trail
to find out where it leads.

Aslam Abdullah, chief of Minaret Magazine, which is published weekly
in Los Angeles, said he realizes law enforcement agencies have to
operate under heightened security considerations. However, he said law
enforcement should focus simply on those people who commit crimes and
not on the ethnic background of the criminals.

"I think if they have a case, then they should proceed," Abdullah
said. "But if they have no such case, then mere speculation could
destroy the community."

Abdullah's magazine focuses on Islamic life in North
America.