Administration Efforts
With respect to the superlabs described above, law enforcement efforts have aimed to cut off the supply of pseudoephedrine, the principal ingredient (or precursor), used to produce methamphetamine. In recent years, the supply came primarily via Canadian suppliers to domestic superlab operators. Law enforcement efforts to disrupt the diversion of these chemicals from Canada have been coordinated in Operation Northern Star, led on the American side by DEA, with participation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and closely coordinated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Canada's implementation of controls on the importation of precursor chemicals was also a critical element in stopping the flow of chemicals into Canada. In a sign that these efforts are having a real impact, the number of superlab seizures within the United States has substantially declined since the initiative's inception in 2001. Other indicators suggesting that Operation Northern Star has contributed to shrinking the illicit pseudoephedrine market include a decline in pseudoephedrine and ephedrine incidents at the Canadian border by 85% and a doubling in the price of bulk pseudoephedrine in the illicit market in California, the state with the most superlabs. Arrests and prosecutions are the main drivers of these market changes: in April 2003, the DEA and RCMP announced the arrest of over 65 individuals in 10 cities throughout the US and Canada, and just last month, the DEA arrested an additional 90 methamphetamine and ephedrine traffickers in a single operation.
Along with the reduction in domestic superlabs, it appears that the decline in chemical trafficking to Canada has caused some chemical suppliers to seek to ship the chemicals to Mexico instead, where law enforcement believes the number of labs is increasing. Consistent with these changes to the illicit pseudoephedrine market, methamphetamine seizures at the shared border with Mexico rose from 1,172 kilograms in 2001 and 1,224 kilograms in 2002 to 1,735 kilograms in 2003.
For this reason, the Administration will continue to work with our international partners to stop the flow of bulk pseudoephedrine and ephedrine into Mexico, through bilateral chemical control cooperation and multilateral cooperation with the international chemical industry. We particularly acknowledge the leadership of the Fox administration in seeking mechanisms to control the methamphetamine threat in Mexico. We fully support their efforts to become more effective at identifying and dismantling labs on their side of the border. During the week of November 8, 2004, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in coordination with DEA, dismantled a major Mexican smuggling organization that was smuggling precursor chemicals and finished methamphetamine into the United States from Mexico. During the course of this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, agents seized 1,100 pounds of iodine, 37 gallons of hypophosphorous acid and 25 gallons of hydriodic acid—all of which are precursors used in the methamphetamine production process—at or shortly after crossing the border. The DEA Southwest Laboratory has calculated that this quantity of chemicals could have been used toward the production of approximately 550 pounds of methamphetamine.
Currently, the United States is involved in several multilateral initiatives to track chemicals used in the manufacture of amphetamines, methamphetamine, and other amphetamine-type stimulants such as 3,4 methlyenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and other synthetics, with the goal of enhancing the involvement of China, India, the Netherlands, Canada, Mexico, Poland, the Czech Republic, and other countries in cooperative chemical control efforts.
In addition, the efforts of Federal law enforcement agencies and programs continue to be focused on disrupting the domestic market for methamphetamine. The percentage of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigations in which at least one of the drugs involved included methamphetamine increased from 19.2% in FY 2001 to 25.1% in FY 2002. The program's methamphetamine focus has continued to increase since then, to 25.9% in FY 2003 and 26.7% in FY 2004. OCDETF investigations which involve methamphetamine are particularly prevalent in three of the nine OCDETF regions—West-Central, where 53.1% of the investigations involve methamphetamine; Southwest, with 58.8%; and Pacific, with 45.8%.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program also provides a valuable means for Federal, state and local law enforcement to collaborate against mid- and high-level methamphetamine traffickers in regions where methamphetamine is a significant threat. The purpose of the program is to enhance and facilitate the cooperation between Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. All HIDTAs develop local initiatives designed to respond to the threat in their area. In recent years, among HIDTA initiatives that focused predominately on a single drug, more have focused on methamphetamine than on any other drug. And most of the remaining initiatives which were poly-drug in nature included a methamphetamine focus.
As one example of a successful methamphetamine-related HIDTA initiative, the Central Valley California HIDTA's Southern Tri-County Drug Task Force is a multi-agency initiative headquartered in Bakersfield, California that investigates all aspects of methamphetamine trafficking, including the acquisition of precursor chemicals, manufacturing, distribution, and money laundering. During 2003, the task force dismantled 17 superlabs, 12 precursor extraction laboratories, 12 "user" laboratories and processed 48 dumpsites. The investigators opened 248 new investigations during the year and disrupted or dismantled 15 drug trafficking organizations operating in the tri-county region. The investigations led to the arrest of 285 individuals on drug and other felony charges, and 64 drug-endangered children were rescued during the year.
The impact of the small toxic laboratories has been of particular note on a number of levels. First, small labs impact children growing up around, and ingesting, these chemicals. These labs contaminate the environment when methamphetamine cooks dump their toxic chemicals into the water table and onto farmland. Also, these labs create life-threatening hazards, such as explosion or chemical toxicity, which harms not only the people cooking methamphetamine, but first responders who try to save their lives by entering burning and contaminated sites. As noted above, the amount of methamphetamine consumed in the United States originating from these smaller clandestine laboratories is believed to be smaller than that originating from superlabs. However, due to the effects described above, they are a particularly pernicious problem.
