$800,000 IN PAINKILLING PILLS DISAPPEAR ON A ZIGZAG ROUTE

NEWARK, Dec. 21 -- Law enforcement officials and company investigators
are trying to track down a missing shipment of the prescription
painkiller OxyContin, which has become increasingly popular as an
illegal recreational drug, after the shipment disappeared during a
circuitous journey from Philadelphia to New Jersey.

Officials of the shipping company, Emory, alerted authorities on
Thursday after the intended recipient, the Cardinal Health Company in
Swedesboro, N.J., complained that its order had not arrived, said
James Allen, a spokesman for Emory.

Mr. Allen said today that the company, a division of Menlo Worldwide,
based in Redwood City, Calif., was not yet certain that the shipment
had been stolen, and that its internal security force was looking for
it. But, he said, the company notified the Newark and New Jersey State
Police departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
federal Drug Enforcement Agency, as required by federal law.

"There may not even be a loss; it could turn up," Mr. Allen said of
the shipment of pills, which he said had a retail value of $800,000.

Federal law also requires that controlled substances pass through a
control point maintained by the shipper, which accounted for the
curious, zigzag path of these drugs, forced to detour to Dayton, Ohio.

According to Mr. Allen, the shipment was picked up by an Emory truck
on Dec. 14 at the manufacturer, PF Laboratories Inc., in Totowa, N.J.,
brought to an Emory facility near Newark International Airport here,
transferred to another truck, and then sent to an Emory facility at
Philadelphia Airport.

From there, Mr. Allen said, the shipment was loaded onto a plane bound
for Emory's control center in Dayton. From there it would be flown
back to Philadelphia, and brought by truck to its destination,
Cardinal Health Services in Swedesboro, N.J.

"The last we knew, it was sent to Dayton," Mr. Allen said.

Sgt. Robert Koval of the Newark police said the department began
treating the loss as a crime today. "We're going to be moving forward
as a theft investigation as of right now," he said.