DRUG RING INVESTIGATION NETS ARRESTS IN 12 CITIES

Federal agents have broken up a drug ring that smuggled a primary
methamphetamine ingredient from Canada and converted it into the popular
street drug, officials announced yesterday.

Fifty-six people were arrested yesterday in 12 U.S. cities and 33 more
arrest warrants were issued in connection with the third phase of Operation
Mountain Express, a nationwide investigation targeting the illegal
trafficking of pseudoephedrine, according to Asa Hutchinson, head of the
Drug Enforcement Administration.

The common antihistamine is legal to purchase in Canada but controlled in
the United States. The confiscated chemicals could have produced 18,000
pounds of methamphetamine, a street drug known as "crank" or "speed."

"Methamphetamine was a major priority as I moved over to the DEA, and so
this carries out our strategy and really targets the epicenter of
methamphetamine production in this country," Hutchinson said.

Most of the alleged smugglers are of Middle Eastern descent, and several
were in the U.S. illegally.

Federal investigators have followed some of their money back to the Middle
East. There are no indications that the suspects were involved in
terrorism, Hutchinson said.

"We have seen evidence that the money is flowing back to the Middle East,"
he said, but added that he is unsure what the money is used for once it
gets there.

The alleged smugglers brought pseudoephedrine pills from Canada into the
United States, mainly through Detroit and Chicago, officials said. The
chemical was hauled in tractor-trailers disguised as Federal Express
vehicles and sold to methamphetamine labs on the West Coast and in Mexico,
they said.

The operation -- a joint effort by the DEA, the U.S. Customs Service, the
Internal Revenue Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- led to
arrests in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas,
Wilmington, N.C., and five California cities, including Los Angeles. Since
the operations began in 1999, authorities have arrested 300 people and shut
down nine methamphetamine labs.