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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE January 10, 2002 For further information, contact: DEA Public Affairs: 202-307-7977 MORE THAN 100 ARRESTED IN NATIONWIDE METHAMPHETAMINE INVESTIGATION Case Overview:
In addition to today’s 54 arrests, 67 individuals were arrested previously as part of this investigation. Today federal agents also executed 49 search warrants, confiscated 96 automobiles, restrained bank accounts, businesses, and residences, and seized $350,000 in U.S. currency in connection with this investigation. As of noon today, Operation Mountain Express (Phases I, II, & III) has resulted in the seizure of over 30 tons of pseudoephedrine, 181 pounds of methamphetamine, over 300 arrests, 9 clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, and over $16 million in U.S. Currency.
Conference Transcript: MR. HUTCHINSON: Good afternoon. I’m Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. I am pleased to be joined by Robert Bonner, commissioner of Customs; as well as Bob Wenzel, on my left, who is the deputy commissioner of IRS, to make the announcement today. I am pleased to announce the successful completion of the third phase of Operation Mountain Express, a 12-month investigation that targets the epicenter of methamphetamine production in this country. As I came to the DEA, being a member of Congress from Arkansas, I fully understood the difficulties of methamphetamine and the impact of it. It has been a high priority. And so it is with some degree of pleasure that we have dismantled two nationwide criminal networks that were trafficking multi-ton amounts of pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine producers in the United States. Today the DEA and other law enforcement partners across the country have issued arrest warrants for 89 major pseudoephedrine traffickers in 10 cities across the country, from Detroit to Los Angeles, to Phoenix, to Chicago. During the course of the investigation, we have also closed down nine large-scale methamphetamine laboratories operating in California. Fifty-six of the targeted individuals are in custody. We have issued and executed 49 search warrants across the country today. The three key cell leaders are in custody. This is the first national enforcement operation that targets bulk suppliers of pseudoephedrine from Canada, and these traffickers smuggled in multi-ton quantities of pseudoephedrine from Canada, and sold this drug either directly, or through brokers to Mexican nationals operating meth labs in the United States.
On my left, you will see two comparisons. One, on the left, is a van load of pseudoephedrine, which is a typical quantity that was targeted in the first phases of Mountain Express, I and II. Since then they have moved to a little bit larger operation — you can see on my far left — Mountain Express III, which reflects semi-trailer truckloads of pseudoephedrine that comes across the border into the United States. The typical operation method was that these traffickers would go to great length to hide their activities by using a FedEx logo on the truck, or even using a trailer that was stolen from the United States Mail, and using that logo on their truck to appear legitimate. The majority of the traffickers are of Middle Eastern descent, and we have determined that they send drug proceeds in part back to the Middle East, and we are continuing to follow the money trail. During all of the phases of Mountain Express, phases I, II and II, we have seized 30 tons of pseudoephedrine from these two groups. This would make about 37,000 pounds of methamphetamine. To give you an idea of how significant that amount is, consider that last year U.S. authorities reported only 6,000 pounds seized nationwide. To put this in another picture —and we are grateful for our Canadian counterparts and the cooperation they have extended during this operation —but in Canada, one of the reasons that they went across the border, is that in Canada the pseudoephedrine is not regulated, and so it is lawful to load up a semi-trailer truckload in Canada of pseudoephedrine. It is illegal to bring it in the United States when it is going in to illegal purposes. But in Canada, in the year 2000, 55 metric tons of pseudoephedrine was brought into the commonwealth, or Canada, the nation of Canada, during the whole year for all purposes. Of those 55 metric tons, in phase III of Operation Mountain Express, we seized 16 metric tons coming into the United States, and going into illegal purposes. And so 25 percent of all the pseudoephedrine that was brought into Canada was seized coming illegally into the United States. And we are hopeful that this operation, and the illustration of this case, will move forward legislation in Canada that will regulate pseudoephedrine that it is such a problem in the United States.
And I believe that we are making progress on the methamphetamine problem in our nation. Let me be clear I believe that our strategy is working. We are dismantling the trafficking organizations, targeting those—putting pressure on those, increasing the risk to them. Secondly, we are eliminating the supply source for pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient going into methamphetamine. And that is illustrated by the efforts in this particular case. Thirdly, we are continuing our education efforts across the country to educate people to the dangers of methamphetamine. Two years ago we began Operation Mountain Express. We have had unprecedented success putting out of business 68 rogue chemical companies. And now we are moving it into the bulk supply that is coming out of our neighbors from the north, from Canada. We have shut down the domestic source of pseudoephedrine to a large extent, and now we are stopping the bulk supply coming in from across the border. I am delighted that we have had great cooperation from our enforcement partners, that are represented on this stage —and of course many of the state and local partnerships that we have across the country. And now I’d like to welcome Rob Bonner, commissioner of Customs —thank him for his great leadership and work, and the cooperation that is illustrated in this case.
In this case, U.S. Customs and the DEA were assisted by the Internal Revenue Service, by the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and by the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency. During the past nine months, to put this in a time sequence, from about April of 2001 until December of last year, about a month ago, the U.S. Customs Service has seized 110 million pseudoephedrine tablets that were being smuggled into the United States from Canada. That’s about, by the way, if you want to translate that into pounds, that’s about 60,000 pounds of pseudoephedrine tablets, which would yield anywhere from 40 to perhaps as much as 50,000 pounds of methamphetamine. That’s about 40,- or 50,000 pounds of methamphetamine that wasn’t produced, because Customs seized the pseudoephedrine at the border. Now, the 110 million tablets that were seized were seized in eight different seizures, as I said the first one being in April of 2001, and the last one took place on December 5th —just about a month ago. The DEA provided intelligence, by the way, for some of these seizures to the U.S. Customs Service, and others were, as they say, “cold hits” —no pun intended here. The —all of the diverted pseudoephedrine that Customs seized arrived by commercial trucks entering the United States from Canada at Michigan and Minnesota. In fact, all of these seizures took place —if I —demonstrated here —all of these seizures took place, all of these eight seizures, and the 110 million tablets —took place at the Port of Detroit —commercial trucks coming across from Canada into the United States at Detroit, and at the Port of Port Huron, which is also in Michigan. There was one of the seizures that actually took place in Minnesota at Grant Portage, Minnesota. So, as I said, all of these seizures took place —came across the Canadian border into the United States. Customs officers found pseudoephedrine hidden in these commercial trucks in shipments of furniture, shipments that were described on the shipping manifest as glassware, and did contain glassware —but they concealed a huge amount of pseudoephedrine. And there was even one shipment of bubble gum. The first of the eight seizures occurred on April 11th of 2001, and it was a particularly brazen attempt to smuggle a huge amount of pseudoephedrine into the United States. A truck driver arrived at the Port of Detroit with a shipping manifest claiming that the truck was empty. And, by the way, that’s not unusual to have empties coming back across the border. But the manifest said this truck was empty. And, despite that, the very alert Customs inspector decided to order that truck over to what’s called secondary inspection. And inside the truck he found 43 million tablets of pseudoephedrine packed in about — many boxes. In fact, that photo over there is a photograph of the inside of that supposedly empty tractor-trailer truck that contained 43 million pseudoephedrine tabs, or about — roughly about 12 tons of pseudoephedrine. The stash was more than large enough to convince the Customs inspector that these drugs were going to be used for something other than to treat colds. In fact, I think there was enough decongestant in that — that one truck itself to unplug about every nose in Michigan for several years. This case indicates that Canada has become the major source of pseudoephedrine used for the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine in the United States, meth that is then sold on the streets and towns and rural areas across the United States illegally. And meth, as Administrator Hutchinson knows, is a particularly nasty and pernicious and addictive drug, and it’s one that Customs, along with the DEA, want to do everything we can to keep —to make it more difficult to get. I want to commend Administrator Hutchinson and the DEA for leading this very effective investigation that has brought down two large Middle Eastern drug trafficking organizations —the Jafar organization out of Detroit and the Yassoui (ph) Brothers organization that is operated and based in and out of Chicago. These organizations were the suppliers of huge amounts of pseudoephedrine to Mexican meth traffickers in California who manufacture and then distribute most of the meth that you see around the United States. By targeting and removing these groups, the manufacture of meth will definitely be made more difficult. We must, however, cut off the supply of these precursor chemicals, the pseudoephedrine coming in from Canada. I am very pleased, by the way, that Customs contributed to this successful investigation in several ways: through our Customs inspectors who seized large amounts of these precursors at the border; through the work of our Customs special agents, who were involved in several controlled deliveries following from those seizures; and through our Customs air interdiction unit, that provided aerial surveillance to assist agents on the ground. Thank you. MR. WENZELL: Well, thank you, Administrator Hutchinson and Commissioner Bonner. The Internal Revenue Service stands proudly in partnership with the attorney general, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Customs Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to bring to justice those who are engaged in narcotics trafficking in America.
For the Internal Revenue Service, the major goal in financial investigations is to identify and document the movement of money during the course of a crime. The link between where the money comes from, who gets it, when it is received, and where it is stored or deposited can provide proof of criminal activity. Often our findings take us directly to the door of the leaders of the narcotic organizations. We are part of a very formidable team of law enforcement agencies whose mission is to find these operations and stamp them out. And we are committed to getting the job done. Thank you. MR. HUTCHINSON: Following any questions that you might have for Rob Bonner and Bob and myself, we will have a presentation by the operations individuals from each of the different agencies. But we would be happy to take any questions now. Q Are you suspicious that money —(inaudible) —back to the Middle East is in some way funding terrorism projects, or do you have any idea? MR. HUTCHINSON: There is no indication of a terrorist connection to any of these operations. It is standard procedure that whenever we have an investigation we follow the money. And so we are continuing to follow that to see where that money goes. But at this point there is not any indications that there is any connection with terrorist activities. Q You thank the Canadian law enforcement agencies for their role in assisting you in this. But do you not think that the Canadian government has been negligent in not clamping down on the use of pseudoephedrine in Canada sooner? MR. HUTCHINSON: Let me just say from a very positive standpoint we want them to move expeditiously. This is very important to what we are trying to accomplish in the United States, and we urge the Canadian government to move as quickly as possible to enact regulatory legislation. I know that our ambassador, Paul Salucci has —we’ve talked to him, Commissioner Sacadelli (ph) with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police we visited with. So we urge .them to move very quickly. And I think this case will illustrate the importance of it and the necessity of it. MR. BONNER: Could I just add one thing to that? And that is I want to echo Administrator Hutchinson’s comments, and that is that we had incredibly good cooperation from Canadian law enforcement, from the RCMP and from the Canadian Customs Agency here. In fact, they were extremely helpful. I believe also that it’s fair to say that the Canadian government is aware of this issue; and that is that there are huge amounts of pseudoephedrine that are being smuggled into the United States. And I understand that they are taking steps, the legal steps that are necessary and the regulatory steps that are necessary to address the issue. Q Can you provide us more details about the organization that was involved in Montreal in the smuggling? MR. HUTCHINSON: Well, the organizations that we have targeted are based in Detroit and Chicago, and the activities in Canada again involve legitimate sales of pseudoephedrine. So the organizations we targeted were out of Detroit and Chicago. Q There was an organization in Montreal —somebody to provide the drugs? MR. HUTCHINSON: Yes, they were businesses and manufacturers, distributors of pseudoephedrine were the companies. But they were legal sales at that point. And so they were not a part or a target of the investigation. Q (Off mike) —Canadians among the warrants or arrests that you have made? MR. HUTCHINSON: I’d have to check for sure, and our operations people could answer that. But I am not aware of it at this point. Q Were these Middle Eastern men —were they U.S. citizens, or were they Middle East —or were they here on visas, or how were they here? MR. HUTCHINSON: They—most —many of them, the majority of them were here in a legal status. We are in the process of checking obviously with INS as to their status, the background, and alerting them of their arrests. Q Were any U.S. citizens? MR. HUTCHINSON: The—I believe that you will find in the 86 targeted individuals that some will be United States citizens. The majority, the vast majority, were—had a legal resident status here from Middle Eastern countries. Q (Off mike)? MR. HUTCHINSON: They will be outlined for you shortly. We do have their countries. The majority of them were from Jordan and Iraq. Q When you say you are still tracking the money that is going to the Middle East, and you haven’t found any connection to terrorism yet, that search is still continuing —you haven’t ruled that out yet, is that right? MR. HUTCHINSON: That is correct. That is correct. Q Mr. Administrator, can you tell us—Nine labs were controlled by Mexican traffickers. And I was wondering if there is any connection between those Mexicans who were involved in these labs and any major drug cartel organization in Mexico? MR. HUTCHINSON: Well, any time you are talking about this huge volume of methamphetamine, we consider them significant criminal organizations. And these are Mexican national organizations engaged in manufacturing methamphetamine through the super labs in California. Q Commissioner, I am wondering about specifically what the sources were in Ottawa and Montreal —where they were buying the pseudoephedrine. MR. BONNER: I think the administrator answered that, that they were buying it from distributors of various kinds of pharmaceuticals, including pseudoephedrine. So they were buying bulk quantities from distributors in Canada who were essentially either manufacturing it in tab form, because most of this —almost all of this was not powder pseudoephedrine; it was already encapsulated in tabs, and it was being bought in bulk quantities and then smuggled out of Canada into the United States. So these would be distributors in Canada. And one of — Q What’s the brand name? MR. BONNER: Well, let me ask the administrator to address the names. MR. HUTCHINSON: Well, there were two companies in Canada, Frega and Formulex Q Can you spell it? MR. HUTCHINSON: F-O-R-M-U-L-E-X. Q And Frega? MR. HUTCHINSON: Frega, F-R-E-G-A —and if I am wrong on that, my operations folks will correct later. But again, these are two legitimate Canadian companies that are not a target of the investigation. There is no indication of any illegal activity, because it was, again, legal in Canada for the sale of the pseudoephedrine, even in large quantities. There was a previous company, Expromedic (ph), that was a bogus company, that was previously dismantled because they were buying it and then bringing it in for that intent and purpose. But that was not the major supplier in this case. Q Commissioner, was it packaged in a type of format that you buy in a pharmacy for instance? Or was it in —you know, was there a brand name on it when it came across the border? MR. HUTCHINSON: It was all in tablet form, just like it would be sold in the stores. Q No brand name? MR. BONNER: I don’t believe there were any brand names. When Customs seized these tabs at the border entry points, any brand name had been removed from it. And they usually came initially in thousand-tab bottles, which are pretty big bottles, and then they moved to 32,000 tab bottles, which are huge bottles —in shipping it. But there were —if I am not mistaken, ‘I don’t believe there were names on the bottles themselves that would indicate the manufacturer. Q So, to be perfectly clear, in Canada it’s legal to buy this as a cough medication, but in the States it’s not? MR. BONNER: No, no. First of all, it’s illegal to purchase pseudoephedrine in the United States for purposes of using it in the illegal manufacturer of methamphetamine, which is an illegal drug. We have the same issue here. I mean, there are legitimate uses of pseudoephedrine, and I actually should let Administrator Hutchinson speak to this —but there are legitimate uses for pseudoephedrine. The question here is diversion for illegal manufacture. And right now in Canada they do not have, in my judgment, adequate laws and regulations to protect against the illegal diversion of pseudoephedrine for the illegal manufacture of pseudoephedrine. Q Judge Bonner —Judge Bonner, you said that the Canadian law enforcement authorities had been overwhelmingly cooperative, and that you have urged the Canadian law makers to address this problem. What has been the lawmakers response? MR. BONNER: Well, first of all, this is something I know that Administrator Hutchinson has been involved in along with me in terms of encouraging the Canadians to take effective action to staunch this flow of illegal pseudoephedrine. I know that there is —I have been told —I understand that the Canadians —the government at the political level is aware of this problem, and I have been advised that they are taking steps to strengthen their laws and regulations to make it more difficult —much more difficult —for this kind of illegal diversion. And that’s by, what, taking a look at how much pseudo they are importing —this is powder pseudo —and seeing if it matches up —this is what we do in the U.S. —see if it matches up with the amount of pseudo you need to treat the colds of the 30 million or so Canadians —or whether you’ve got a lot more than you need, which might indicate illegal diversion, and then making sure that you have the people that are coming in to bulk distributors of pseudoephedrine to these .ocompanies that Administrator Hutchinson talked about —making sure that they get adequate identification, and they record that identification and the purpose for which the pseudoephedrine is going to be used; which is one of the most effective things, by the way, the DEA did in terms of eliminating the diversion of pseudoephedrine in the United States. Q Do you think these companies are knowingly turning a blind eye to the fact that they are obviously selling much more of this commodity than could possibly be consumed in Canada, and they are making profits in essence off the back of the drug industry here? MR. HUTCHINSON: Well, you’d be asking me to judge intent and motive, and I don’t believe I am in a position to do that. It is my understanding that the Canadian companies were cooperative. And to illustrate the cooperation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, even though it is not illegal in that country, they were very helpful in this investigation, knowing that it was a serious problem in the United States and is something that they were assisting in our investigation in. To further underscore the distinction between the Canadian law and the United States law, as Commissioner Bonner, who has a good advantage in this discussion, since he was previously administrator of the DEA, it is correct —you know, in the United States it is legal to sell pseudoephedrine when it is for a legitimate purpose. But it is illegal when we know that the intent is that it goes for an illegal purpose, such as being used in a meth lab. In Canada there is just no regulation. And so the intent is not the issue in Canada. And so that is what the distinction is and what hamstrings us. And hopefully that will be remedied very quickly. Q What will the specific charges be against the individuals that have been arrested? MR. HUTCHINSON: There will be a range of charges. Obviously conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine; to import or to bring in and illegally distribute a List One chemical or a listed chemical; there will be a charge in Congress to strengthen the penalties for that so that it now is up to a 20-year penalty for the illegal distribution of a listed chemical. Yes, ma’am? Q In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, did you add more resources to this investigation? Did it take on a new urgency because it’s a border question, of people that could smuggle things across the border, dangerous weapons, et cetera? And, secondly, did you —are you looking more closely now at the people that you are focusing on, doing more checks, tracing their links back more aggressively in the wake of the attacks? MR. HUTCHINSON: Clearly this case began before September 11 in the context of Mountain Express I and phase II. What has changed since September 11, from our standpoint at the DEA, is the critical necessity of chasing the flow of money —in not just this particular case but in all cases involving drugs —because we see drugs as being a means in some instances of financing violent activity. Mr. Bonner might have a comment on the border there. But that’s certainly very much of an interest to us, is the flow of the money. MR. BONNER: We are certainly of course since September the 11th —I mean, we are very concerned about border security at the Customs Service. And, as you probably know, we are at Level One alert at both the northern and the southern border of the United States, which means that we are much more aggressively questioning people and searching goods and cargo coming into the U.S. But I can’t say that the timing itself was affected here. And in fact, as Administrator Hutchinson indicated, and as I have indicated, actually some of these seizures at the border took place as early as April of last year —so before September the 11th. Q How confident are you that Detroit and —(inaudible) —Minnesota are the only ports of entry? What about going through Washington —is that —Washington State —or other ports of entry? MR. BONNER: We seized an incredible amount, Customs did, of pseudo—110 million tablets —60,000 pounds. We didn’t seize it all. I mean, there was more pseudoephedrine that crossed from the Canadian border in the United States that we were not able to seize, because some of the pseudoephedrine the DEA found at laboratories where the DEA went in with search warrants —they found pseudoephedrine that was coming in from Canada. So we didn’t get it all. I think we got a huge amount, when you think about it. But obviously we .are talking about volumes that are coming across from Canada that exceed the 110 million tablets that Customs is actually able to seize. Q You are already at a Level One alert on the northern and southern borders as you just pointed out. Knowing that —or possibly given the fact that pseudoephedrine may have come from other border ports from Canada into the United States, are you stepping up your presence even more so? Are you adding more people to let’s say a border in Montana or a point of entry in Washington State? MR. BONNER: We have a stepped up presence, which gives me —against the terrorist threat right now —which gives me greater confidence that Customs is going to be able to seize a much higher percentage of the pseudoephedrine. And I think we are doing it. And, yeah, we are concerned about more of the northern —the ports with Canada beyond just Michigan and Minnesota. (Cross talk.) Q What is the value of the seizure? What is the value ot the seizure? MR. HUTCHINSON: We are resisting putting values on seizures. We’ll give you amounts. But we don’t quantify it in terms of the amount. Q Administrator Hutchinson —(off mike) —a chemical derivative of something else —it is produced in Canada or is it imported from Canada? MR. HUTCHINSON: The pseudoephedrine is manufactured —a lot of it comes from China. It is brought into Canada in powder form, and then it is put in capsule form, remanufactured there in Canada and distributed. That is the means in this case that happened. Q And the amount of —(off mike) —imported into Canada has grown dramatically in the past year? MR. HUTCHINSON: Correct, correct. Q Would you —(inaudible} —the money that’s going to —you are following the money trail right now —do you know where —can you give us a suggestion at all about what country you might be talking about this money going back to? MR. HUTCHINSON: This is an ongoing investigation. I think that it is preliminary, so I would not want to point in a specific direction. But we know enough now that there is a money trail going back to various countries in the Middle East, and that’s all we can comment on now at the present time. I want to —we are going to have our operations people, and I think everybody here will acknowledge the greater work of the Customs, the IRS agents out in the field, as well as the DEA agents. I am very proud of the great work they did —courageous and extraordinary leadership on this issue. And they will be able to answer any more technical questions. If there’s broad, overreaching questions, we’ll be happy to answer. Q Do you have an idea of what the percentage is that you have captured compared to what comes across the border in a typical year? MR. HUTCHINSON: The percent that I gave was the percent captured of all the imports into Canada, which is an incredible fact when it’s 25 percent. I don’t have the percent as to what we are capturing coming across the borders. There’s been estimates. I want to just make one final point, if I might. This coming in from Canada takes over to California, and of course this is where it comes and is distributed through middle America. So even though the lines are drawn from Canada, Chicago to California, it is middle America that it is distributed to. So this is truly nationwide in scope and nationwide hopefully in impact as well. Let’s take one final question here and then we’re done. Q Okay, it is my understanding that the dogs for Customs cannot sniff out pseudoephedrine. So how is it that you are coming across this, and is it just purely random? MR. BONNER: Well, first of all, that’s an interesting thing. I need to there are going to be some technical people, our operations people from Customs and the DEA that are going to follow us here. So I don’t know if the assumption of your question is accurate —it may well be. But how were we able to be so successful? Part of it was we got some very good leads from the DEA for some of these seizures —about half of them I think. Q Intelligence driven? MR. BONNER: Intelligence driven. About half of them though were I mean cold hits —they were done by Customs inspectors who were doing their very alert good job in the field in terms of inspecting container trucks coming from Canada. And so it was a combination of both things. And I am going to leave to John Varrone (ph) or somebody who will stay behind here the specific thing in terms of the dog capabilities. MR. HUTCHINSON: Thank you very much. And we’ll have our operations people, for those who are interested in a more specific Power Point presentation in this case. Source:
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Today,
the Drug Enforcement Administration, together with the U.S. Customs Service,
Internal Revenue Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, announced
the arrests of more than 100 individuals in twelve cities in connection
with a nationwide investigation targeting the illegal trafficking of pseudoephedrine.
Pseudoephedrine is an essential precursor chemical used to manufacture
the illegal drug, methamphetamine. The investigation “Operation Mountain
Express III” is expected to have a significant impact on the availability
of pseudoephedrine resulting in a drastic decrease in the supply of methamphetamine
in the United States.
And
if you look over at the chart over at the right, you can see that Mountain
Express III starts in Canada, where the pseudoephedrine, many times in
semi-trailer truckloads, go across the border to Detroit, housed partly
in Chicago; it is transported through semi-trailer truckloads over into
California where it is used in the laboratories. 
These
quantities confirm the enormous demand for methamphetamine in the United
States. It is no doubt one of the work drug epidemics that we have seen
in this nation. It is certainly predominant in the rural areas of our
country, and it leaves behind a trail of crime, broken families, wasted
lives and death. 
MR.
BONNER: Thank you, Asa. The U.S. Customs Service is proud to be a partner
with the DEA in Operation Mountain Express III. This is a great example
of law enforcement agencies working together, from the Canadian border
where the methamphetamine precursors were crossing into the United States,
all the way to the illegal methamphetamine labs in California, where most
of the methamphetamine in the United States is made and then distributed
across our country. 
The
IRS special agents bring unique financial investigative expertise to many
types of investigations, and their skills are particularly useful in this
kind of narcotic investigations. Narcotics trafficking generates huge
amounts of untaxed income, usually in the form of currency that must be
concealed using elaborate money laundering schemes and other sophisticated
means.