Federal and state authorities said Friday they are investigating eBay sales of products containing pseudoephedrine out of Portland.
At least 10 auctions discovered at the online auction site Thursday and Friday by two sellers offered thousands of pills, far exceeding new state laws on sales of the chemical used to make methamphetamine.
Three auctions continued to take bids Friday. Three other auctions Thursday that described open bidding through the weekend could not be found Friday, but it was unclear whether eBay or the sellers ended them.

Ken Magee, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Oregon, was not aware of the auctions when asked Thursday. On Friday, Magee said an investigation had been launched and that the eBay auctions “piqued our interest tremendously.”

Capt. Craig Durbin of the Oregon State Police said, “We know it’s a problem,” and that illegal buyers of pseudoephedrine “need to know that law enforcement will track them down.”

The pseudoephedrine auctions illustrate the evolution of the meth epidemic — and the problems that law enforcement faces in stopping its production. With Oregon and other states passing laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine in recent months, buyers and sellers of the chemical are finding new ways to obtain it, officials said.

“Crooks are becoming more savvy,” said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C. “They’re realizing, ‘Hey, here’s a way to go through a keyboard anonymously, make cash and disappear.’ ”

For at least six months, the DEA has worked with Silicon Valley-based eBay and other online retailers to stop illicit sales of pseudoephedrine, Courtney said. The retailers are trying to develop filters to root out illegal sales while allowing legal ones, he said.

But trying to find criminals in a marketplace featuring tens of millions of listings is difficult, eBay officials said.

“It’s impossible for us to police that and be 100 percent effective,” said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.

Posted: 09|17|05 at 4:24 pm. Filed under: US News.