CUSTOMS SEIZES 5 TONS OF AN INGREDIENT FOR 'SPEED'

U.S. Customs Service inspectors have seized more than 21 million tablets of
pseudoephedrine, a common over-the-counter cold medication, that were being
smuggled into the United States for use in the production of
methamphetamine, customs officials said.

Customs spokesman Dean Boyd yesterday described the 5-ton seizure, which
occurred about 5 a.m. Saturday at the Blue Water Bridge at the U.S.-Canada
border near Port Huron, Mich., as one of the largest in history.

He said the tablets were worth about $21 million.

Methamphetamine is a powerful illegal stimulant that is highly addictive.
Commonly known as "meth," "speed," "crank" or "ice," methamphetamine, most
popular in the West, is described as one of the most dangerous drugs on the
street today.

In the past several years, its use has spread eastward, fueled by
drug-trafficking rings with headquarters in Mexico and backed financially
by other organizations in the purchase of precursor chemicals. A pound of
methamphetamine would sell on the street for an estimated $12,000.

Mr. Boyd said the seized pseudoephedrine tablets were being smuggled into
the United States for illicit "meth" production in clandestine laboratories.

He said investigators found 21,156,250 tablets in the trailer of a
commercial truck, concealed in plastic bags inside 250 cardboard boxes
labeled "fragile."

Each box weighed about 40 pounds and contained roughly 84,600
pseudoephedrine tablets. The boxes were shrink-wrapped on eight pallets and
located in the nose of the 53-foot trailer.

The tablets were hidden in the boxes among other imports, including
automotive parts and equipment, a crated cabana kit, cooking equipment and
office furniture. The truck was bound for 10 locations, beginning in
Michigan and ending in California.

Mr. Boyd said the customs inspector who made the seizure normally works at
the seaport in Mobile, Ala. She has been temporarily assigned to the
U.S.-Canada Border for three weeks in support of the U.S. Customs Service
Level One Alert.

He said she credited the seizure to her recent Contraband Enforcement Team
training in Miami and her "inspector's intuition."

In 2001, Customs officers seized more than 111 million pseudoephedrine
tablets along the U.S.-Canada border. Since Oct. 1, customs officers in
Michigan have made nine pseudoephedrine seizures totaling more than 36.8
million tablets.

Mr. Boyd said the driver of the truck was questioned by U.S. Customs
special agents and released, as there was no evidence they had knowledge of
the contraband.

Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner has said Canada has become the major
source of pseudoephedrine used for the illegal manufacture of
methamphetamine in the United States. Production, distribution and bulk
sales of pseudoephedrine are tightly regulated in the United States,
although Canada has virtually no restrictions on the drug.

U.S. authorities have said that Canadian imports of pseudoephedrine --
mostly from China, India and Germany -- have increased by nearly 1,500
percent since the mid-1990s, much of which they believe has been smuggled
into the United States.