DRUG GANGS SEND MONEY TO TERRORISTS

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities have amassed evidence for the first
time that an illegal drug operation in the United States was funneling
proceeds to Middle East terrorist groups like Hezbollah.

Evidence gathered by the Drug Enforcement Administration since a
series of raids in January indicates that a methamphetamine drug
operation in the Midwest involving men of Middle Eastern descent has
been shipping money back to terrorist groups, officials said.

"There is increasing intelligence information from the investigation
that for the first time alleged drug sales in the United States are
going in part to support terrorist organizations in the Middle East,"
DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson said.

DEA officials said the men, most of whom were indicted on drug charges
after their January arrests, were smuggling large quantities of the
chemical pseudoephedrine from Canada into the Midwest.

Officials said the smuggling went through two primary Midwest
locations, Chicago and Detroit, and involved several men with ties to
Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon and other Middle East countries. There is no
evidence that any of the money was connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, officials said.

Pseudoephedrine is used in some popular cold and allergy medications.
It is one of a dozen ingredients used in the creation of
methamphetamine.

The U.S. drug ring was reselling pseudoephedrine to Mexican-based drug
operations in the Western United States that used the pseudoephedrine
to produce methamphetamine, authorities said.

The Middle Eastern men then were diverting some of the proceeds from
the pseudoephedrine sales back to the Middle East to accounts
authorities have begun to connect to terrorist groups, DEA officials
said. Some of the connections involved the Iranian-backed terror group
Hezbollah, and some of the money has been traced to accounts in
Lebanon and Yemen, officials said.

DEA officials said U.S. authorities don't know yet how much money was
funneled from the drug sales to the terrorist groups, but said the
pseudoephedrine sales alone amounted to millions of dollars.

The raids have resulted in criminal charges against 136 people and the
seizure of nearly 36 tons of pseudoephedrine, 179 pounds of
methamphetamine, $4.5 million in cash, eight real estate properties,
and 160 cars.