News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2004

ASAC Arvanitis Testifies at Congressional Subcommittee Hearing

APR 30--Detroit, MI- On April 20, 2004, a congressional hearing entitled, “Northern Ice: Stopping the Methamphetamine Precursor Chemical Smuggling Across the U.S.- Canada Border” was conducted at the McNamara Federal Building. Pseudoephedrine is the major precursor chemical utilized in the production of methamphetamine. The hearing was arranged by U.S. Representative Mark Souder, Indiana, Chairman, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources.

John Arvanitis, Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Detroit Field Division testified at the hearing.. ASAC Arvanitis stated that seizures of pseudoephedrine from Canada into Michigan have sharply declined since 2003. Arvanitis also testified that DEA intelligence information has shown that the trafficking of pseudoephedrine from Canada into Michigan has dramatically decreased since 2003. Arvanitis attributed this decline to successful law enforcement interdiction and investigations between 2001 and 2003. Those investigations resulted in the seizure of more than 127 million tablets of pseudoephdrine and ephedrine that had originated in Canada. ASAC Arvanitis further testified that “it appears that methamphetamine production is moving back to Mexico.”

At the conclusion of the hearing Representative Souder said: “What I’ve learned in Detroit is they’ve pushed the chemicals somewhere. The question is, where did they push it?”