Federal agents in Los Angeles announced Wednesday that they had seized $40 million worth of the hallucinogenic party drug Ecstasy, the largest such confiscation in U.S. history and an ominous sign of the increasing popularity and profitability of the so-called club drug.
The 1,096-pound shipment was seized Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving on an Air France flight from Paris. Authorities said that they tracked the shipment--in 15 boxes labeled as pens, pencils and tablets--for weeks via wiretaps and seized faxes and that it probably originated in Amsterdam.
Three people alleged to be linked to a ring that imported the drug from Europe were arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles. They are Ryu "Steve" Jiha, 35, a South Korean citizen who lives in Granada Hills, and Mark Edward Belin, 28, and Damon Todd Kidwell, 29, both of Los Angeles.
A fourth suspect, alleged ringleader Tamer Adel Ibrahim, 26, of Los Angeles, is a fugitive. He is described in court documents as a "high-level Ecstasy trafficker who imports massive amounts of the drug from the Netherlands to Los Angeles for distribution across the United States."
At a new conference in his downtown Los Angeles offices, U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas said the ring had "tentacles that reached throughout the world."
He painted Saturday's seizure as evidence of a vast upswing in production of Ecstasy that threatens to cause serious physical and emotional damage across the country. U.S. Customs Service officials said the agency has seized nearly 8 million doses of the drug in the last 10 months, more than twice the 3.5 million tablets confiscated during 1999.
Demand for the drug has surged in the United States, and Ecstasy is especially sought after by teenagers who frequent nightclubs and all-night dance parties called raves. It has gained a reputation as a "feel-good" drug but can damage long-term memory and cause death.
Los Angeles has become a hub of Ecstasy smuggling because of its high volume of international flights and its status as the center of the underground rave youth culture, authorities said. Investigators have intercepted several large shipments of the drug in Southern California, including a 700-pound cache in December, which at the time was the largest Ecstasy seizure in U.S. history.
Many of the law enforcement actions have involved the ring allegedly led by Ibrahim, authorities said. The December seizure resulted in the arrests of five people, including John Ibrahim, 22, of Los Angeles, said to be the cousin of Tamer Ibrahim.
