The DEA Western Laboratory (San Francisco, California) recently received 11 large, heat-sealed evidence envelopes containing a large number of tablets (total net mass approximately 72 kilograms), suspected Ecstasy (see Photo 4; closeups not available). The exhibits had been concealed in a false gas tank of a vehicle entering at the Blaine, Washington Port of Entry, and were seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. One envelope contained 8,729 green, biconvex tablets with a Batman logo (average mass 256 milligrams), 3,605 pale blue, flat beveled tablets with a dolphin logo (average mass 177 milligrams), and 164 pale blue, flat beveled tablets with a heart logo (average mass 178 milligrams). Analysis of the tablets by GC/MS and Marquis color testing confirmed MDMA in the green tablets (45.7 milligrams per tablet), but indicated no controlled substances in any of the blue tablets. Further analyses of the blue tablets by GC/FID affirmed no controlled substances and no basic or neutral soluble components. The tablets in the other 10 envelopes all contained MDMA. This was one of the largest ever submissions of Ecstasy tablets (but also the first submission in some time of Ecstasy tablet fakes) to the Western Laboratory.
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