October 29, 2007

Search of San Gabriel Valley storage unit nets $2 million cache of Ecstasy
Seizure part of ongoing ICE-led probe that has led to 11 recent arrests

LOS ANGELES - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and investigators for the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement executed a search warrant at a self-storage facility in the San Gabriel Valley late Friday, seizing roughly about 100,000 Ecstasy tablets with an estimated street value of more than $2 million.

The Ecstasy tablets were packed in three duffle bags hidden inside an 8-by-10 foot storage unit in Rosemead. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Monterey Park Police Department assisted with securing the location prior to the execution of the search warrant.

The seizure is part of an ICE-led investigation into several San Gabriel Valley-based criminal organizations suspected of smuggling large quantities of Ecstasy, or 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), into and out of the United States. Including Friday night's cache, investigators have seized a total of 135,000 Ecstasy tablets tied to these organizations over the last three months.

The ongoing drug probe involving ICE, the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and the Los Angeles Police Department has resulted in 11 arrests in recent weeks, including the suspected ringleader of the largest smuggling organization identified so far, Jian Dong Mai. Mai, 51, of Rosemead, was taken into custody October 17 and is being held without bond. The Chinese national is charged in federal court with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Of the other 10 suspects arrested in conjunction with the investigation, six are facing federal charges. The remaining four are being prosecuted by local authorities.

"This is one of the largest Ecstasy seizures in the Los Angeles area in recent years," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "The size of this seizure is a clear sign that this probe has succeeded in dismantling several significant local Ecstasy smuggling rings."

"The Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, once again, played a critical role in taking dangerous chemicals off the streets of Southern California," California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said, "It is particularly troublesome that some of these drug dealers were college students, breaking the law in between classes," Attorney General Brown added.

Ecstasy is a synthetic, psychoactive drug chemically similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. It is classified under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that it has no medical purpose.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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