ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A banned chemical linked to destruction of the earth's ozone layer is joining narcotics as the most lucrative contraband for smugglers, feeding a growing black market that law enforcers are struggling to shut down.
The Justice Department announced indictments Thursday charging more than a dozen people in five states with smuggling into the United States containers of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, a refrigerant used in millions of auto air conditioners.
Officials acknowledged that a nationwide crackdown is stopping only a fraction of the illegal chemical, much of it smuggled from Mexico. To date, 1.5 million pounds have been confiscated, but officials estimated 20 million pounds crossed U.S. borders illegally last year alone.
The profits can be immense. CFCs may sell for less than $2 a pound in India or just across the border in Mexico, where they are legally produced, but would command $13 to $20 a pound in the U.S. black market, experts on the CFC trade said. The United States ended production for domestic use in 1995.
To focus attention on the growing problem, Attorney General Janet Reno personally announced Thursday's indictments against smuggling suspects in Florida, Georgia, Texas, California and Pennsylvania.
``To CFC smugglers we say: `We will find you. We will shut down this black market,''' Reno told reporters.
Carol Browner, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the latest action ``sends a clear message that we will not tolerate smugglers who jeopardize the health of American families and people around them.''
Sold under the trade name Freon, the chemical now known as CFC-12 served as primary coolant for automobile air conditioners, and an estimated 80 million cars built before 1994 still use it.
The chemical is to be phased out globally under a 1987 treaty. Industrial nations already are barred from producing the chemical for their own use, but the deadline for poor countries to stop was set at 2010. CFCs still are made in the United States, but only for export to countries where they remain legal.
Law enforcement officials said primary sources of illegal CFCs entering the United States appear to be Russia, India and China.
Current stockpiles of legal CFC-12 from past production and of recycled coolant is supposed to meet the needs of cars still using the banned chemical. When that stockpile is used up, motorists will have to switch to a more environmentally friendly alternative.
Browner said widespread sale of illegal CFCs on the black market is postponing the shift to the alternative coolant.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB