Politics & Policy

AUTHORITIES ANNOUNCE SCORES OF ARRESTS IN CRUSHING A DRUG-DISTRIBUTION RING

WASHINGTON -- Federal law-enforcement officials carried out a 12-city drug
bust Thursday, arresting 58 people they said were connected to two rings
smuggling pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient in both over-the-counter sinus
medicines and methamphetamine, or "speed."

The arrests make a total of 125 since April in connection with two alleged
rings based in Chicago and Detroit. Authorities believe the rings were
responsible for trying to bring millions of over-the-counter tablets of the
decongestant into the country from Canada. Once in the U.S., the tablets
were delivered to illegal laboratories in California, where they were used
to make methamphetamine.

Officials said they suspect a link to terrorism in the case. Some of those
arrested were people of Middle Eastern descent accused of funneling part of
the proceeds to associates in Yemen and Jordan.

So far, investigators have found no clear evidence of a link to funding
terrorism, said Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration. But they are pursuing that angle aggressively. "There's a
whole lot of smoke with a whole lot of money. We're looking for the fire to
go with the smoke," said one federal investigator, who said authorities
have traced cash shipments in the "millions of dollars" to the two Middle
Eastern countries.

Altogether, federal authorities have made more than 300 arrests since they
began focusing attention on similar rings in August 2000. DEA investigators
said that most of the defendants picked up in the latest operation are from
Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Kuwait and Iraq. Charges range from
conspiracy to illegal distribution of drugs.

Mr. Hutchinson said that the authorities were checking the immigration
status of the defendants, but so far, they all appeared to have entered the
country legally or are U.S. citizens.

The smugglers made bulk purchases of the tablets in Canada, where the
regulations on such purchases aren't as stringent as in the U.S. Since the
operation began, U.S. law enforcement seized about 30 tons of
pseudoephedrine, enough to produce about 37,000 pounds of methamphetamine,
Mr. Hutchinson said.

In just one incident, Customs authorities found 43 million tablets in a
truck at a border stop near Detroit. The truck driver said the rig was
empty, Mr. Hutchinson said. "There was enough decongestant in there to
unplug every nose in Michigan for years," said Customs Commissioner Robert
Bonner, a former DEA administrator.

One of the ways the tablets were brought into the country was in trucks
with FedEx and U.S. Postal Service logos.

Pseudoephedrine smuggling and the outflow of money to the Middle East has
been a concern for federal law enforcement since 2000, when federal agents
arrested 140 people across the U.S., including eight ringleaders who came
from Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com