August 2000

OPERATION MOUNTAIN EXPRESS

A major DEA investigation, known as Operation Mountain Express, culminated in August 2000. As part of this nationwide operation, federal agents arrested more than 140 individuals in eight cities and took enforcement actions in at least 35 others. The criminals targeted had been trafficking large volumes of pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical used to manufacture the illegal drug, methamphetamine.

As of August 2000, Operation Mountain Express had resulted in the seizure of $8 million, 10 metric tons of pseudoephedrine tablets (capable of producing approximately 18,000 pounds of methamphetamine), 83 pounds of finished methamphetamine, two pseudoephedrine extraction laboratories, one methamphetamine laboratory and 136 pounds of chemical solvents and reagents. The investigation is continuing and it is anticipated that additional pseudoephedrine wholesalers may face criminal, civil, or administrative action.

Operation Mountain Express was coordinated by DEA's Office of Diversion Control and the Special Operations Division (SOD), which is comprised of attorneys from the Department of Justice's Criminal Division and agents and analysts from DEA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs Service, and Internal Revenue Service. Federal agents, with assistance from numerous state and local police agencies, carried out the arrests in Los Angeles, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, San Diego, Portland, Houston, and Lodi, California. The individuals arrested face federal charges for their involvement in a loosely structured national network that trafficked in pseudoephedrine. According to court documents, all of the individuals arrested are alleged to have been directly involved in the unlawful diversion of pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine production organizations headquartered in Mexico and operating in California and elsewhere.

During the course of Operation Mountain Express, investigators learned that wholesalers in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, and New York were shipping multi-ton quantities of pseudoephedrine tablets that ended up in California, where black market pricing produced as much as $3,000 profit per pound. Over the past ten years, pseudoephedrine has become widely used in the production of methamphetamine because of its ready availability in over-the-counter cold and allergy products. Traffickers in California, which has historically been a center of methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking, began purchasing supplies nationwide when law enforcement attention and strong state precursor control laws made it increasingly difficult for them to obtain sufficient quantities of pseudoephedrine from local sources.

In addition to the arrests, DEA Special Agents and Diversion Investigators served administrative orders to revoke the registrant status of 20 other major pseudoephedrine distributors, and executed administrative inspection warrants and notices of inspection to examine the records of numerous additional pseudoephedrine distributors.