U.S. and Hong Kong (2006)

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Prepared Remarks of
DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy
at
IDEC Opening Ceremony
Montreal, Canada

May 9, 2006

Administrator Tandy often departs from prepared remarks

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In the past 1 to 2 years, Ecstasy production has shifted from Europe to the Western Hemisphere. The smuggling of Ecstasy precursors, specifically MDP2P, is on the rise from China. Just one seizure late last year of MDP2P and Ecstasy powder, would have made more than 16 million Ecstasy tablets valued at $164 million.

Methamphetamine trafficking and the movement of its precursor chemicals are an increasing global threat. More than 26 million people worldwide use amphetamines—largely methamphetamine—which is more than the worldwide users of heroin and cocaine combined.

Last November, one of three meth labs with the largest potential production capacity in the world was seized in Indonesia through the joint efforts of DEA and law enforcement in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. More recently, we learned that methamphetamine trafficking organizations in the U.S and Canada have begun exporting meth to Japan.

Last week, I met with various ministers in Mexico about our bi-national efforts to develop a comprehensive methamphetamine strategy. Our friends in Mexico have developed aggressive strategies to attack methamphetamine production and trafficking and have set new limits on its importation of these chemicals, reducing their supply by 53%, from 150 tons to 70 tons.

Because of law enforcement pressure and successes attacking the illegal chemical trade, traffickers have had to adapt and change their trade patterns, re-routing precursor chemicals to new countries. We're seeing ephedrine shipped from India and China to South Africa and then from there to South and Central America. Chinese ephedrine is being diverted through Cairo on its way to Mexico. And ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are being diverted in other African countries including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Mozambique.

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Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence. It is all about that if we are to have the greatest impact on the evil organizations that we are here to face.

--On the intelligence sharing front, this past year, Russia and the US signed a historic Memorandum of Mutual Understanding to broadly share information. Earlier last year, we signed a similar agreement with China. Soon after 9/11, the US established an agreement with New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to jointly target those organized crime groups presenting the greatest transnational threat to the participating countries. With these information sharing agreements, we entered into new partnerships that will allow us to better target and investigate international drug trafficking organizations.

--Last fall, 20 countries in West Africa attended the first of its kind joint operation conference to formulate a comprehensive regional strategy targeting West African-based major trafficking organizations that are moving cocaine coming from South America through Africa to Europe, and heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Africa to Europe and the U.S.

--Law enforcement from Australia, India, Canada, and the United States joined together last year to target Internet traffickers who were using more than 200 websites to illegally traffic narcotics, amphetamines, and anabolic steroids across the globe. We dismantled the organization and arrested 20 key members in the U.S., India, and Costa Rica.

--For 3 months last year, DEA joined with Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia to attack the main arteries of the Western Hemisphere drug trade in Operation All Inclusive. You'll hear more about this successful joint operation later, but together, we seized a record 46 metric tons of cocaine and disrupted traffickers, forcing them to suspend drug operations, change modes and routes of drug transports, and even jettison loads of drugs.

--Last year, law enforcement from Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Laos, and the U.S. continued to target the United Wa State Army—the major producer and source of illicit drugs in the Golden Triangle. Several key members were arrested, and the Burmese Police seized $111 million and closed 3 banks that had been used to launder the organization's drug proceeds.

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