U.S. MOVES TO CLOSE CANADIAN DRUG ROUTE FOR ILLEGAL STIMULANT

TORONTO --- The illegal production in the United States of popular
stimulants like methamphetamine reflects lax regulations in Canada for the
chemical ingredients, American and Canadian law enforcement officials have
said.

As a result, Canada has become the leading supply route for the raw
ingredient -- typically in the form of decongestants -- to the United
States where the substances are more tightly controlled.

In the last 11 months, the United States Customs Service has seized more
than 110 million tablets of decongestants that contain the primary
ingredient for making methamphetamines, or "speed," as smugglers tried to
bring them across the border among shipments of everything from furniture
to glassware.

The seizures have become so huge that Robert C. Bonner, the commissioner of
the United States Customs Service, recently joked that enough decongestant
had been confiscated from one truck "to unplug about every nose in Michigan
for several years."

That truck had crossed the Ambassador Bridge into Detroit last year from
Canada where the decongestant, pseudoephedrine, is perfectly legal and
freely obtained even though it is a tightly controlled substance in the
United States.

Canada's connection to illegal American methamphetamine production arose
after Washington tightened controls over pseudoephedrine several years ago,
and as trafficking routes through Mexico were shut down. Now, an alliance
of diverse organized crime groups stretching from Mexico to Iraq and Jordan
have found Canada an easy entry point into a growing American market for
synthetic drugs.

Canadian businesses legitimately import the chemical substance in powder
form, mostly from China. The Canadian government concedes that they have
relatively loose control on the power which criminal elements have easily
circumvented.

Those imports have increased 14 times since 1995, United States and
Canadian law enforcement officials said. Some of that has helped Canadian
cold sufferers in the form of decongestants manufactured by several
Canadian pharmaceutical companies.

But a large portion of it has entered the American black market for
methamphetamine, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and
Canadian officials said.

"The diversion of pseudoephedrine from Canadian suppliers to the illicit
market is reaching a critical level," according to an intelligence report
by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
January.

As methamphetamine, which gives users a seductive rush of power, confidence
and energy, has grown in popularity since the mid-1990's, it has become a
priority for law enforcement officials.

The drug is an especially addictive narcotic that can cause brain damage
and aggressive behavior and has been linked to 60,000 admissions a year in
American hospitals.

Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration
officials have tracked the profit trail of pseudoephedrine smuggling to the
Middle East, where they are probing to see if the money is being used to
finance terrorist networks.

Illicit methamphetamine use is minimal in Canada, and little processing is
believed to be done here. But under prodding from the Bush administration,
Canada has acknowledged the trafficking problem and the government here is
drafting a number of regulations on pseudoephedrine imports and exports as
well as enforcement strategies to close the Canadian connection.

The parliamentary review process in Canada can be slow, however, and
Canadian officials say that full enactment and enforcement of new
regulations cannot come any sooner than December.

While United States officials are quick to credit the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police and Canadian customs officials for helping American
investigators trace the supply route, senior Bush administration officials
and American lawmakers are pressing Canada for more action.

"In Canada, there is just no regulation," for pseudoephedrine, said Asa
Hutchinson, the Drug Enforcement Administration chief. "Hopefully that will
be remedied very quickly."

Canadian officials say they want to help shut down the pipeline as quickly
as possible.

"We are aware of the problem," said Andrew Swift, a spokesman for Health
Canada, the agency drafting the controls which will construct a paper trail
to aid narcotics investigations. "And the regulations will address the
problem."

Since September 11, as border security has been tightened, traffickers have
become more cagey, concealing the chemical shipments in legitimate
shipments of products like bubble gum and in trucks disguised as Federal
Express or United States Postal Service trucks.

The extent of the pseudoephedrine problem was revealed by a recent Drug
Enforcement Administration and American customs enforcement operation
called Operation Mountain Express III that resulted in 371 arrests, more
than 16 tons of pseudoephedrine seized and more than $17 million in cash
confiscated. A majority of the traffickers arrested in the operation, which
included Canadian law enforcement assistance, were of Jordanian and Iraqi
origin and had resident status in the United States.

Drug enforcement agents found that traffickers using assumed names bought
the chemicals in Canada and brought them across the border to Port Huron,
Mich., and Detroit, making that city and Chicago hubs for distribution.

Various traffickers then took the chemicals to clandestine laboratories,
mostly run by Mexican organized crime in California, to be processed into
methamphetamine.

American law enforcement officials in January characterized the operation
as a big success. But Paul Marsh, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, said the networks were running again.

"There has been no noticeable difference," he said. "We need regulations in
place that would make it more difficult for persons with criminal intent to
purchase these chemicals in the first place."