Tracknum: 31937.004d01c1743a.3bae7a20.968b2dc7
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Nov 2001
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2001 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jerry Seper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?158 (Club Drugs)

DEA FORGES FOREIGN ALLIANCES TO COMBAT SPREAD OF ECSTASY

The Drug Enforcement Administration has forged a new alliance with law 
enforcement authorities in Europe and Canada to combat a dramatic rise in 
the production, availability and use of the "party drug" known as Ecstasy.

Drug agents from the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA or Federal Criminal 
Investigation Agency in Germany), and representatives from Canada, the 
Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Czech Republic 
attended an international law enforcement conference at the DEA academy in 
Quantico, Va., this week to discuss Ecstasy trafficking.

The weeklong session focused on rising Ecstasy concerns in Europe, Canada 
and the United States - including trafficking trends and the augmentation 
of coordinated plans to stop the trafficking of the drug between Europe and 
North America.

Ecstasy is the popular name for the stimulant methyldiocymethamphetamine 
(MDMA), which has hallucinogenic properties. Used by young people at rock 
concerts, all-night club parties knows as "raves" and at private parties, 
it is designed to suppress the need to eat, drink or sleep. It can cause 
loss of consciousness, seizures from heat strokes or heart failure, brain 
damage and death.

"This conference underscores the importance of international and 
multiagency cooperation in fighting criminal organizations responsible for 
distributing hundreds of thousands of MDMA tablets worldwide," said DEA 
Administrator Asa Hutchinson.

Ecstasy was first synthesized in 1912 by a German company to be used as an 
appetite suppressant. In the 1970s, it was used to facilitate psychotherapy 
by a small group of therapists in the United States. Illicit use of the 
drug did not become popular until the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ecstasy 
is frequently used in combination with other drugs.

Clandestine laboratories that produce Ecstasy operate throughout Western 
Europe, primarily in the Netherlands and Belgium, and they are known to 
manufacture significant quantities of the drug in tablet, capsule or powder 
form.

The DEA said that while the vast majority of Ecstasy consumed domestically 
is produced in Europe, a limited number of laboratories operate in the 
United States. In addition, in recent years, Israeli organized-crime 
syndicates, some composed of Russian emigres associated with organized 
crime in Russia, have forged relationships with Western European 
traffickers and gained control over a significant share of the European market.

The Israeli syndicates are currently the primary source to U.S. 
distribution gangs, the DEA said.

DEA officials said overseas trafficking organizations smuggle the drug in 
shipments of 10,000 or more tablets via express-mail services, couriers 
aboard commercial airline flights and - more recently - through air-freight 
shipments from several major European cities to cities in the United States.

The drug is sold in bulk quantities at the midwholesale level in the United 
States for about $8 per pill. The retail price of Ecstasy sold in clubs in 
the United States remains steady at between $20 and $30 per pill.

The DEA said Ecstasy traffickers use brand names and logos as marketing 
tools to distinguish their product from that of competitors. The logos are 
produced to coincide with holidays or special events. Among the more 
popular logos are butterflies, lightning bolts and four-leaf clovers.

The National Drug intelligence Center (NDIC), a Justice Department agency 
assigned to collect strategic domestic counterdrug information, recently 
warned that the production, availability and use of Ecstasy had increased 
at an alarming rate, making its potential threat equal to that of cocaine 
and heroin.

"Of the club drugs, none presents a greater threat than MDMA or ecstasy," 
said the NDIC in a report in August. "When coupled with the growing 
involvement of organized-crime groups in production, transportation and 
distribution, the threat of MDMA potentially equals that of more 
traditional drugs."

DEA agents and NDIC investigators said the major U.S. distribution cities 
for Ecstasy are Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, 
Pittsburgh, San Diego and San Francisco, although use of the drug is 
increasing in suburban communities nationwide.

Mr. Hutchinson recently warned that the use of Ecstasy was rising and many 
parents of those using the drug were unaware of what was going on at 
parties and other gatherings where Ecstasy was being used.

"Most parents don't have law enforcement connections. So they don't know 
what's going on at these functions," he said. "The world of club drugs is a 
brand new world, particularly for parents who don't keep up on the latest 
fads in music and lifestyles. And that includes most of us."