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The chemicals seized during Operation Primavera were stored in standing tanks or 55-gal. drums. In some cases the drums were stacked 15 ft. high, creating Andean peaks of testimony to the proportions of the smuggling operation. Ethyl ether, for example, is essential to the final processing of cocaine base into a white hydrochloride powder. The manufacture of ethyl ether has been outlawed in Colombia, and importation is closely regulated. A 55-gal. drum of ethyl ether that sells for $500 in the U.S. fetches more than $12,000 in Colombia. Says Alfonso Barragan, president of the Colombian Society of Chemical Engineers: "The Colombian black market in chemicals probably has a higher profit margin than that of cocaine itself."
The contraband chemicals are not all from the U.S., or even from other industrialized nations. Much of the ethyl ether was manufactured in Brazil. The potassium permanganate, normally used as a water purifier, came from China, which is the world's leading producer.
Since Brazil and China are among the majority of countries that have few regulations governing the foreign sales of chemicals, tracing the path of the seized materials will not be easy. But chemicals manufactured in the U.S. may be another matter, at least in the future. Last year the U.S. passed a new ( law, which will take effect in the next few months, requiring closer supervision of the overseas sales of chemicals used in the production of cocaine, including ethyl ether and acetone.
Authorities may be able to trace at least some of the U.S.-produced chemicals seized in Colombia over the past two weeks. The contraband included containers marked with the logos of Dow Chemical Co. and Union Chemical Corp. Both companies are among major U.S. chemical producers who have agreed to cooperate with the DEA in seeking to ascertain the final destination of the chemicals before allowing them to leave the country. In the case of the chemicals seized in Colombia, however, most of the batch numbers on labels had been scratched off by knife blades. Given how successful drug lords have been in using a dizzying tangle of middlemen and front companies to hide their activities, law enforcement officials may never be able to halt fully the chemical side of the drug trade.