Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jan 2002
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2002 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Cecil Angel, Free Press Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DEA BUSTS 3 MEN IN DRUG PROBE

Stimulant Said To Have Come From Canada

Three Wayne County men were arrested Thursday as part of a nationwide 
crackdown on rings smuggling large quantities of a Canadian-made 
cold-medicine ingredient into the country for use in the illegal 
manufacture of methamphetamine.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are also looking for a fourth Wayne 
County man. DEA agents -- with the aid of local law-enforcement agencies -- 
made arrests in several cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, 
Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The rings were trafficking pseudoephedrine, a stimulant used in cold 
medicine that is controlled in the United States but unregulated in Canada.

The crackdown was part of an antidrug operation called Operation Mountain 
Express.

In Detroit, six-count indictments opened Thursday in U.S. District Court 
named Mohamad Mahmoud Jafar, 45, and Haidar Auon, 38, both of Dearborn 
Heights, and Assaad Hamdan, 38, and Mohamad Kassir, 33, both of Dearborn.

The men are charged with conspiracy to possess and conspiracy to import a 
listed chemical knowing or having reason to believe that the chemical would 
be used to manufacture a controlled substance.

If convicted, the men face up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

Kassir's pretrial hearing was scheduled for Jan. 22, and he was released on 
a $10,000 personal bond. Jafar has a detention hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. 
today. Auon's arraignment will be completed Jan. 17 to give him time to 
hire an attorney.

Hamdan has not yet been arrested, said Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the 
U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.

According to the indictment, shipments of pills would be transported in a 
variety of vehicles, undeclared, with bills of lading that disguised the 
true nature of the chemical.

The drug was to be sold to Mexican drug operations in the southwestern 
United States and Mexico for the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Susan Feld, special agent with the DEA in Detroit, said the men arrested 
locally acted as brokers. "They would sell it to other people in California."

Balaya said the drug operations nationwide were not linked. "It's not one 
large conspiracy," she said.

According to the DEA, 54 people were arrested nationwide Thursday, and 96 
vehicles and $350,000 were seized. To date, Operation Mountain Express has 
seized over 30 tons of pseudoephedrine, 181 pounds of methamphetamine, made 
over 300 arrests and shut down nine illegal laboratories.

Also on Thursday in another drug bust at a hotel in Taylor, the U.S. 
Customs Service arrested three men on charges of trafficking in 
pseudoephedrine. Kamal Mohamed Nagi, Saleh Mohsen Elmathil, and Norbert 
Kurzawa have a detention hearing scheduled in U.S. District Court at 1 p.m. 
today.
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