K.C. Alfred / Zuma Press

Daniel Chong appears at a news conference Tuesday in San Diego where he discussed his detention by the DEA.

So far, the facts of the case are not in dispute: College student Daniel Chong was picked up by federal agents during a raid on a party in the San Diego area where there were illegal drugs, and after questioning he was left locked up in a holding cell with no water, food or access to a toilet for nearly five days.

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The mystery is the reason for the nearly fatal treatment. How could the federal Drug Enforcement Administration misplace a person in custody? Does it represent one serious mistake or a systems failure?

"It’s just incredible," said George Kirkham, professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University. "It’s in the genre of a parent locking a child in a car in 100-degree heat … And this is a major federal agency, not a Podunk sheriff’s operation out beyond Yuma."

See the full account by NBCSanDiego.com and The Associated Press

Chong, a 23-year-old student at the University of California-San Diego, was taken into custody with eight others during a DEA raid on April 21 of a "suspected MDMA distribution operation." Chong said he had gone to the house to get high with his friends.

After processing and questioning the nine young men, "seven suspects were brought to county detention … one was released and the individual in question (Chong) was accidentally left in one of the cells," according to a statement from the DEA. 

Chong said he could hear agents outside his cell, but no one could hear his cries, according to an NBCSanDiego.com/Associated Press report. He said that after 48 hours, he started hallucinating, and that to survive, he drank his own urine. After he was "found" in the cell, Chong spent three days in intensive care at a hospital, according to the report.

Chong’s case is extreme, and the DEA issued an apology Wednesday.

"I am deeply troubled by the incident that occurred here last week," said DEA San Diego acting special agent-in-charge William R. Sherman. "I extend my deepest apologies to the young man and want to express that this event is not indicative of the high standards that I hold my employees to. I have personally ordered an extensive review of our policies and procedures."

DEA would not discuss the case beyond what was said in the statement.

"The DEA rightfully put out a pretty forceful apology and said they will review procedures … and that is appropriate," said Kevin Sabet, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida and a former senior policy adviser to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This was an extraordinary situation and, as far as we know, an isolated incident."

Symptom of systemic problem?
But organizations advocating the reform of drug laws say that the problem is a symptom of the system of the war on drugs.

"Not that (Chong’s case) is typical, but that it is an example of what happens when you are arresting millions of people a year and putting them behind bars where all sorts of terrible things happen," said Ethan Nadelman, executive director and founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates alternatives to the criminalization of drugs.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the number of people behind bars for drug law violations rose from 50,000 in 1980 to more than a half of a million today — a 1,100-percent increase. The group said that in 2008, more than 800,000 people were arrested for marijuana alone — nearly 90 percent for simple possession.

"The system is unable to meet its basic responsibilities with respect to the people we arrest and incarcerate because there are just too many of them," said David Borden, executive director of StoptheDrugWar.org, which advocates for regulation of drugs instead of prohibition. "There’s a general devolution of standards from the sheer volume."

Arrest for marijuana possession in April 2003 had fatal consequences for Jonathan Magbie, 27, a first-time offender in Washington, D.C.  Magbie, who was quadriplegic, was riding with his cousin when they were pulled over by police, who found some marijuana and a gun in his pockets. In September 2004, a judge sentenced Magbie to 10 days in jail for the pot, according to a Washington Post report. Magbie needed a respirator at night, but the jail infirmary didn't have one. He died four days into his 10-day sentence.

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The death led to a substantial settlement for Magbie’s mother and changes in the way that the District of Columbia screened inmates with medical problems and disabilities, the report said.

"A typical characterization from authorities when things go wrong is that it was unacceptable what happened, but the rare exception," said Borden. "In my opinion this misses the central point. In the past few decades we have escalated the drug war and the criminal justice system generally, to the point where we are running huge numbers of people through it, the system becoming incapable of reliably carrying out its basic responsibilities as a result."

The DEA said that in the April 21 raid that led to Chong’s arrest, it had seized 18,000 MDMA, or ecstasy, pills as well as marijuana, prescription medications and hallucinogenic mushrooms, according to a statement. Agents also reported seizing a Russian M91/30 rifle, a Glock 17 handgun, and a Beretta 92fs handgun, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition.

"The individual in question was at the house, by his own admission, to get high with his friends," the statement said.

Chong was not charged with a crime. With his lawyer, Chong announced that he was filing a claim for $20 million against the federal government over the incident.

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Alejandro Acosta / Reuters, file

A soldier guards boilers at an outdoor clandestine methamphetamine laboratory discovered in Chiquilistlan, Mexico, on December 7.

The number of methamphetamine “super labs” seized by Mexican authorities has rocketed in the last five years but shipments of the drug across the border have also continued to grow, according to government statistics.

The increase highlights how Mexico’s cartels have diversified beyond their traditional focus of exporting cocaine, heroin and marijuana by transforming their operations to also make methamphetamines on an industrial scale.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has noted “a sustained upward trend in Mexican methamphetamine availability in U.S. markets.” Research by the U.S. government also shows that methamphetamine prices are falling and that the purity level of seizures is rising.

According to information from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense, 22 methamphetamine labs were seized in 2007. That number increased to 206 in 2011.

The vast majority of these were classed as super labs – in contrast to smaller operations that characterize much of the production in the United States, a secretariat official confirmed to msnbc.com.  The official asked for anonymity for security reasons.

"Methamphetamine seizure rates inside the United States and along the U.S.-Mexico border have increased markedly since 2007," according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.

'In the business of making money'
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials said they could not comment specifically on statistics released by the Mexican government, but acknowledge that the cartels have adapted and changed since President Felipe Calderon declared his war on drugs in December 2006.

“There has been an evolution,” Special Agent Gary Boggs of the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control told msnbc.com. “All of these drug trafficking groups, they are not in the business of drugs, they are in the business of making money.  So regardless of what the drug is, if there is a market for it they are going to try ways of making money out of it.”

Methamphetamine, a white, odorless and bitter crystalline powder, dissolves in water or alcohol and can be taken orally, snorted, injected or smoked.  Known as meth, chalk, go-fast, zip, ice and crystal, among other names, it can be very addictive and lead to dramatic weight loss, dental problems, paranoia, hallucinations and extreme violence.

The methamphetamine trade is only part of the drug problem confronting Mexico – the country’s cartels also produce or traffic large amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, among other narcotics.  Since Calderon's war on drugs began, more than 47,500 people have been killed, according to the country's attorney general's office.  The worsening violence and continued flow of drugs has caused many to question whether Mexico’s militarized approach is the right way to stamp out the cartels.

While most of the bloodshed in the war on drugs has been south of the border, the problem has had a direct impact on Americans.  Mexico is the primary source of methamphetamines consumed in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice’s National Drug Threat Assessment 2011. 

“Methamphetamine production in Mexico is robust and stable, as evidenced by recent law enforcement reporting, laboratory seizure data, an increasing flow from Mexico, and a sustained upward trend in Mexican methamphetamine availability in U.S. markets,” according to the study, which bases its conclusions on data running through September 2010.  “Law enforcement and intelligence reporting, as well as seizure, price, and purity data, indicate that the availability of methamphetamine in general is increasing in every region of the (United States).”

According to the Department of Justice report, from July 2007 through September 2010, the price per pure gram of methamphetamine decreased 60.9 percent, from $270.10 to $105.49. Purity increased 114.1 percent, from 39 percent to 83 percent.

Booming business
After declining sharply in 2007, methamphetamine seizures along the Mexico-U.S. border have increased every year. 

The dramatic growth in operations targeting Mexican methamphetamine super labs from 2007 and 2011 is likely the result of the huge increase in military involvement during Calderon’s war on drugs, said Octavio Rodriguez, coordinator of the Justice in Mexico Project at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute.

This jump in decommissions cannot be taken alone, however – falling prices also suggest that the trade in methamphetamines remains a booming business despite the enormous military deployment.

“My impression is that this data shows a much greater effectiveness on the part of the army,” Rodriguez told msnbc.com.  “But what these numbers imply to me is that if lab seizures are growing and the price is falling is that the production is so high that it is not causing a serious impact. In other words, if seizures are not having a real effect on prices and the price continues to fall it means that the seizures aren’t even affecting the level of production.”

Since 2007, Mexican spending on security, which includes the army, navy, federal police and attorney general's office, has almost doubled to reach more than $46 billion.

The United States, the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs, had spent around $1.4 billion since 2008 on the struggle against the cartels in Mexico and Central America as part of the so-called Merida Initiative.  Meanwhile, U.S. border patrols costing the United States $3 billion per year have helped make the nearly 2,000-mile-long boundary as fortified as it has been in 160 years, according to a report by the Council of Foreign Relations.

But despite the billions spent and tens of thousands of lives lost, the organization thought to be controlling much of the methamphetamine trade as well as heroin and marijuana, the Sinaloa cartel, remains staggeringly powerful.  In January, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman,  at the helm of the group believed to control the methamphetamine trade and the drug’s key ingredients, earned the title of “world’s most powerful drug trafficker” from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is believed to be a billionaire.

Guzman has also appeared on Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful People list since 2009, and is thought to be the world’s richest drug dealer, according to the magazine.

Key chemicals
Officials say key to stamping out the methamphetamine trade is interrupting the flow of chemicals needed to manufacture it, known as precursors.

China and India are the main countries involved in the trafficking of key precursor chemicals to Mexico, the DEA’s Boggs said

“We’ve … taken steps to work with our international partners to curb international chemical smuggling,” he added.

Despite efforts by officials on both sides of the border, the trade in methamphetamines and precursors is likely spreading south.  According to The Associated Press, 1,600 tons of precursors were seized in Guatemala in 2011, up from 400 seized there in 2010.

In December alone, 675 tons of precursors destined for Guatemala were seized in Mexico.  Most of it came from Shanghai, China, the AP reported.  At $100 per gram for the finished product, that would end up producing hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of drugs.

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