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'Date rape' drug sweep nets 115 arrestsSuspects accused of trafficking drugs on Internet
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal officials announced Thursday they have broken an Internet ring of traffickers in "date rape" drugs, with 115 people arrested over the past two days in 84 cities in the United States and Canada. "These criminals are leaders and mid-level brokers of Internet drug-trafficking rings," Asa Hutchinson, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told reporters. "They used the World Wide Web as a worldwide drug market." The operation targeted sellers and users of three related chemical depressants: GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), GBL (gamma butyrolactone), and 1,4 butanediol, sometimes called BD, he said. Drinks spiked with the colorless, odorless drugs are used intentionally by some people for the chemical euphoria they can evoke, and by others as the first step in committing sexual assault. They can render a person unconscious, cause seizures, respiratory depression, hallucinations, coma and death. The DEA has documented 72 deaths relating to GHB and its derivatives. "The Internet is no longer a safe haven where drug dealers can hide," Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters at DEA headquarters. "Our campuses, our neighborhoods, our communities are safer places for young women today because cyberspace just got more dangerous for drug traffickers." Seizures of the drugs have skyrocketed in recent months, said John Varrone, assistant commissioner for the U.S. Customs Service. Last year, there were 47 seizures of the drugs; this year there have been 900, nearly all of them at the Canadian border, he said. The drugs are typically sold in liter-sized bottles from Canadian Web sites, he added. Locations where suspects were arrested include Quebec; Buffalo, New York; Mobile, Alabama; Sparta, Tennessee; Detroit; Michigan; San Diego, California; and St. Louis, Missouri, officials said. The drugs were being offered for sale on Web pages, and were mailed to purchasers, some of whom were themselves major distributors of the drugs, authorities said. Authorities seized 3,300 gallons of GBL and more than $1 million from seven companies, Hutchinson said. One Canadian-based lab sold $3 million worth of GHB over two years, he said. The chemicals have legitimate uses as industrial solvents, "but the targets distributed these deadly drugs for human consumption by lurking in cyberspace," he said. The drugs are sometimes used at "rave" parties popular among some young people. But "they don't have to be attending 'raves' to fall victim to GHB," said Judy Clark, whose 15-year-old daughter Samantha Reid died three years ago after her Mountain Dew was spiked with GHB. Two of her high school classmates were convicted of manslaughter in her death.
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