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N.J. police seize $11 million in crystal meth
Largest cache in Northeast shows the drug is spreading, authorities say
By Joe Ryan
The Star-Ledger
NEWARK, N.J. — Authorities yesterday said they seized an $11 million shipment of crystal methamphetamine that was intercepted in West Paterson and lends evidence, they say, that the highly addictive drug is taking hold in New Jersey.
The drug, sometimes called Ice, has long been a scourge on the West Coast, particularly in rural areas. But it has swept slowly east, finding its way into urban nightclubs and onto street corners, authorities said.
"We are finally starting to see it seep into the East Coast," said Gerard McAleer, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New Jersey Division.
The 165-pound cache - the largest ever seized in the Northeast - was captured Monday, when members of a DEA task force pulled over a refrigerated tractor-trailer heading east on Route 80. The light-blue crystallized substance was packed into Tupperwarelike containers, wrapped in black duct tape and tucked between crates of limes, authorities said.
Investigators suspect the shipment came from massive drug labs in Mexico. They declined to say where it was going.
The driver, Alberto Olguin, 38, of Texas, was charged with possessing and intending to distribute a dangerous controlled substance. He will be prosecuted in state Superior Court and faces up to 20 years in prison, said Michael DeMarco, an Passaic County assistant prosecutor.
Authorities said they began tracking Olguin in September. They believe Olguin is a United States citizen and suspect he a member of a Mexican drug organization, they said.
Methamphetamine first became popular in the United States in Southern California during the 1980s, especially among motorcycle gangs, said Charles Miller of the National Drug Intelligence Center. Crystal methamphetamine is a refined version of the that drug and is typically smoked through a glass pipe.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations helped spread the drug east beginning in the late 1990s, often using the same routes used to transport cocaine and marijuana, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.
But use in New Jersey remains low, said Raquel Mazon Jeffers, director of the state division of addiction services. Less than one percent of addicts who seek treatment in the Garden State report crystal methamphetamine as their drug of choice, Mazon Jeffers said.
"But it is an epidemic in other places," she said. "So we are keeping an eye out for it."
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Copyright 2008 The Star-Ledger
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