--- Begin Message ---
restore Fri, 21 Dec 2001 Volume 1 : Number 168
In this issue:
AZ: Chapter One: Tucson's Pot Economy
CA: Humboldt MJ Growers Move Indoors
HALF of high schoolers smoke pot, study says.
Press Release: BC Marijuana Party "Feds Borrow $40,000 an hour for War on
Pot
Prayers from Hawai'i
NC: Officers Held Without Bond In Drug Case
MS: Marijuana Seizure Latest I-10 Bust
NORML WPR 12/2/01 - Year end top ten list!
*
[EMAIL PROTECTED] daily digest web version: http://www.crrh.org/hempnews/viewrestore.asp
*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 13:47:12 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: AZ: Chapter One: Tucson's Pot Economy
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: Max1204
Pubdate: Sun, 09 Dec 2001
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2001 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Renee Sauer, staff
Note: Chapter One in a three-part series. The series has some very nice
graphics which may be seen at http://www.azstarnet.com/stashcity/
TUCSON'S POT ECONOMY
City A Vital Link In Drug Trade
While every major city has a retail drug trade directed at consumers,
Tucson supplies all of them.
Take, for example, David Harvan's case. In the late 1980s and early
1990s, Harvan came to Tucson about 25 times to buy and send loads to
Virginia.
"In Tucson, there was tons of marijuana sitting here on any given
day," said Harvan, of Bisbee. "Sometimes we'd go see four or five
loads in an afternoon. It was just like shopping."
Harvan pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking and spent more than two
years in state prison. The former electrician returned to Bisbee to
re-launch his brewery, Electric Brewing.
Investigators say there has been even more marijuana passing through
the city in recent years.
"Historically, there have been connections between people in Southern
Arizona and people in Mexico in the marijuana distribution network.
Over time that's just grown," said Raymond L. Vinsik, director of the
Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal intelligence
and anti-drug coordinating center known as HIDTA.
Traffickers working here spend money like anyone else - on business
and personal costs such as housing, vehicles and food. They earn that
money by marking up the price of each marijuana load to cover expenses
and make a profit.
Take the case of William S. Fusci, a Tucson man who has acknowledged
being a link in the chain of the local marijuana economy and is
scheduled for sentencing Dec. 21.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents investigating Fusci last year
found that for one 400-pound load he paid $550 a pound to a Tucson
supplier, according to federal court documents. When Fusci sold
marijuana to Robert R. Boswell in Florida, he usually charged about
$1,000 per pound, Boswell said in a plea agreement this year. The
difference, in this case $450, is the Tucson distributor's markup.
In his plea agreement, Boswell, who is scheduled to be sentenced
Monday for conspiring to distribute marijuana, acknowledged buying
around 5,000 pounds of marijuana per year from Fusci in recent years.
Fusci, 41, distributed pot loads for nine years, according to the
indictment against him.
"While we're pending sentencing, there's nothing we can say," said
Fusci's attorney, Mike Bloom.
Law-enforcement records show that in 2000, officers seized 291,994
pounds of marijuana in Tucson and Southern Arizona areas that feed
into the city, from Douglas to the Tohono O'odham Reservation.
Drug investigators don't know what percentage of total traffic they
seize, but they estimate the top possibility at 20 percent. Using this
estimate, 1.17 million pounds of marijuana made it to the Old Pueblo
in 2000.
At a markup of $300 per pound, an amount suggested by interviews with
five traffickers, investigators and court records, Tucson made $350
million on wholesale marijuana sales last year.
Changing the percent seized or average markup yields a broad range of
marijuana-related revenues, from as little as $88 million to as much
as $1.3 billion. Add to that the approximately $75 million the federal
government spent locally in 2000 on agencies partially or wholly
dedicated to fighting drugs, and marijuana distribution rivaled the
optics industry. Optics firms, working to earn Tucson the title
"Optics Valley" with products from headlights to telescopes, made
about $650 million last year.
"Brand-New, Fresh Dollars"
At around $350 million in revenues and $75 million in federal
expenditures, marijuana added 2 percent to the area's total personal
income of $20.7 billion in 2000.
"That's pretty large," said UA economist Marshall Vest. Since most of
the marijuana that moves through Tucson is distributed to the rest of
North America, Vest said, "It represents a flow of brand-new, fresh
dollars into the community."
Economists calculate the spinoff effects of legitimate industries by
looking at the jobs and wages created when employees spend money in
the community. This "multiplier effect" would be impossible to
determine with marijuana distribution, said Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi,
program director at the University of Arizona's Office of Economic
Development. The reason: No one can track how much marijuana money
stays in the area.
A study Pavlakovich-Kochi conducted in 1997 provides a clue. She
looked at the economic impact of the fresh-produce industry on Nogales
and Rio Rico. The marketing services segment of the produce industry -
the sector that mirrors the role Tucson plays in the marijuana
industry - generated $376.4 million, which created a multiplier effect
of 6,052 jobs and $159 million in wages.
No direct comparison can be made between Nogales-Rio Rico produce
marketing and marijuana distribution in Tucson, she cautioned. Still,
she said, "definitely there is an impact on the economy. There is no
doubt about it."
The beneficiaries of the marijuana trade, most of them unknowing,
range from "real estate agents to car dealerships to titling
companies," said Pennie Gillette, an Arizona Department of Public
Safety lieutenant who directs the Arizona High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area intelligence center here.
Those in the hospitality industry also get an added boost from
traffickers' frequent meetings.
"When they meet," said Vinsik, Gillette's supervisor at Arizona HIDTA,
"they want to meet at fancy hotels and have fancy dinners and
negotiate their deals."
Capitalizing On Mexico Ties
To understand why the money flows to Tucson, look south.
where investigators found 472 pounds of marijuana June 20.
"We knew there was something going on," said neighbor Roy Jackson. "In
the last few days it was one car after another."
Final Link In Marijuana Chain
Usually, the landlord has no knowledge of the illegal purposes of
tenants who are stash-house operators, drug investigators said. But in
one recent case, authorities accused the landlords of being active
participants.
In January 2000, MANTIS officers were investigating a ring of Jamaican
marijuana traffickers operating here when they seized 1,500 pounds
from townhouses in the Belle Vista development near East Speedway and
North Camino Seco. That led to an undercover operation against the
owners of several rental townhouses, according to an affidavit filed
by Tucson police Officer Roger Nusbaum.
Late last year, owner Gregory T. Shepis began renting to undercover
MANTIS agents who said they discussed with him their need to store
loads of marijuana, according to an indictment issued by a Pima County
grand jury.
The agents said they showed Shepis, 64, a load of 214 pounds of
marijuana stored in one of his units and gave him a pound of pot in
place of a security deposit, the indictment says.
Shepis and his wife, Michelle, are facing trial Feb. 12 on felony
charges, including marijuana conspiracy and money laundering. Both
deny the charges.
Gregory Shepis' attorney said the undercover officers, who wore
recording devices during their conversations with Shepis, entrapped
him. The attorney, Stanton Bloom, said Shepis charged the usual rent
to the undercover officers and made no additional money from their
supposed marijuana trafficking.
Added Michelle Shepis: "I certainly would never have rented to anybody if
they were in any way bad. If they're going to set you up, they're going to
set you up, and they're not going to tell you till it's too late."
When the marijuana arrives at Tucson stash houses, the suppliers
either send it directly to a regular customer or must find a buyer.
That's where another link in the economic chain steps in - deal-makers
who know the haunts and personalities of the local drug trade.
DEA agents arrested one such deal-maker, Jorge Zuniga, last year in
their investigation of the ring led by Tucson distributor Fusci.
Zuniga arranged a 230-pound marijuana sale to Fusci, DEA agent Timothy
Bartels said in a criminal complaint. For connecting the supplier and
buyer, Zuniga received $25 per pound, or $5,750, Bartels said.
Zuniga pleaded guilty Nov. 6 to conspiring to possess marijuana with
intent to distribute.
The final link in the Tucson chain is the distributor, who may be
connected to a Mexican organization or may have a separate group. The
Tucson distributor usually makes in the range of $100 to $500 per
pound, investigators and traffickers said, but takes whatever price
the market will bear.
"It's just like dealing with any kind of commodity in private
industry," said James A. Woolley, the assistant special agent in
charge of the DEA's Tucson office. "You come here and you're going to
get a better price. That's worth the risk of transporting it back to
wherever and selling at a markup."
Business Of Drug Interdiction
During the 25 or so years since Tucson became an important player in
the international marijuana trade, the city has also become a drug-war
nerve center. A Star analysis of federal agencies involved in drug
enforcement found they spent about $75 million in Tucson during the
fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
About three-quarters of the convictions they produced were marijuana
cases, according to Arizona federal court figures. Tucson's federal
court saw 976 drug cases in the year ending Sept. 30, 2000.
Anti-drug agencies such as the U.S. Customs Service and DEA have large
offices here, focused primarily on drug investigations. A typical
special agent makes at least $60,000 per year.
But the federal agency here that makes the most marijuana seizures is
the Border Patrol, which has a station on East Golf Links Road and a
sector headquarters on West Ajo Way. The primary duty of that agency
is to enforce immigration laws, but the agents work between ports of
entry where marijuana loads often cross the border.
The Border Patrol spent more than $23 million on its Tucson offices
and employees last year.
Federal tax dollars also flow here to lesser known anti-drug
agencies.
There's the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a secretive
body with a $12.4 million budget. HIDTA has a large, unmarked building
near Tucson International Airport, where 240 people work.
Many of them are intelligence analysts, some with CIA-level security
clearance. Others are officers from agencies as diverse as the Tucson
Police Department, the Arizona National Guard and the FBI, working
together in a variety of task forces. That blending is meant to break
down the traditional rivalries between agencies.
"Our job is to make people want to work together, and the carrot, of
course, is the money," Vinsik said.
Another little-known agency is the U.S. Customs Service Air Branch,
the largest operation of its kind in the country and based at
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. It helps track smugglers on the ground
along the border, conducts surveillance above Tucson and pursues
suspicious cross-border flights, even across state lines.
Customs has 80 employees at the Tucson air branch, 60 of them pilots.
Another 70 aircraft mechanics, employees of private contractors such
as Raytheon, work at the air branch repairing Blackhawk helicopters
and other aircraft.
The 60 pilots make about $75,000 per year, said Dennis Lindsay, chief
of the Tucson air branch.
"Tucson is a major player in drug interdiction," Lindsay
said.
It's All Business
When drug investigators seek out local links in the marijuana chain,
they often find business owners.
Take Guillermo M. Lechuga. Accused of running a major marijuana
network, Lechuga is also the owner of a Tucson business approaching
its third decade - Superior Natural Oils International. SNOI, in
operation since 1983, produces jojoba oil and other products and sells
them to cosmetic companies around the world.
DEA agents arrested Lechuga on April 13, 1999, and he was indicted
along with 42 others on charges he operated a continuing criminal
enterprise and committed five related crimes. He has pleaded innocent
and is fighting to suppress evidence that investigators obtained
through wiretaps of various phones, including one at SNOI.
After his arrest, Georg Hieber and Edgar Zastrow, German customers of
SNOI, wrote a character reference for Lechuga, calling him a "serious,
reliable businessman" who "kept his promises."
At the time of his arrest, Lechuga employed about 10 people at the
company's office, 2555 N. Coyote Trail, just off West Grant Road,
according to court documents filed by his attorney, Alfred "Skip"
Donau. Lechuga employed others at fields near Guaymas, Sonora, and at
a processing center in Nogales, Sonora.
Lechuga paid his Tucson employees close to $400,000 per year in
salaries, Donau wrote, and the company grossed up to $6 million. Now
out on bond, Lechuga continues to run the company.
According to a sworn affidavit, DEA agents suspect Lechuga was in the
marijuana business even before he got into natural oils and that he
used SNOI as a front. The DEA's first record of Lechuga is from 1975,
when he was arrested in Phoenix in possession of 400 pounds of
marijuana, but the charges were dropped, DEA agent Tracy Donahue said
in an affidavit.
"I don't think there's any credible evidence it was used as a front,"
Donau said of the company. "I know that's not the case, or they
(federal prosecutors) would be seeking forfeiture."
Whatever the source, Lechuga amassed enough money to own a house on
North Casas Adobes Road worth around $500,000, according to the Pima
County Assessor's Office. The federal government is seeking to make
Lechuga forfeit that house, as well as about $400,000 in bank accounts
Some traffickers, like Tucsonan Jose Luis Arevalo, own companies that exist
only on paper. Arevalo was convicted in Tampa, Fla., last year of
conspiring to traffic marijuana and launder money.
During the trial, prosecutors presented a flow chart of the companies he
ran. It included three companies dedicated to real estate.
How much money went through Arevalo's companies is unknown. But a DEA
analyst explained six months worth of drug ledgers at Arevalo's trial,
federal prosecutor LaTour Lafferty said, and the jury reached its own
conclusion: $17.25 million in half a year.
Arevalo's attorney, Frank Rubino, disputed that figure.
"That was what the government believed was the gross amount of the
(marijuana) value in the indictment. Nobody got that money, because it
didn't exist,," Rubino said.
Despite the huge sums, most of the money made on the marijuana that moves
through Tucson does not stay here, drug investigators said. A Tucson
distributor who sells marijuana for $1,000 a pound in Michigan may have to
pay $600 per pound of those proceeds to his supplier in Mexico.
"The bulk of it is going back across the border," said Bill Dickinson,
chief of the Pima County Attorney's Office narcotics division.
Plus, offshore banks provide an anonymous and attractive shelter for
illicit earnings.
Money laundering within Tucson is on a small scale, usually through
businesses even smaller than Lechuga's, Dickinson said. Laundering can keep
small businesses afloat and add to corporate income taxes.
Trafficking suspect Mark E. Steele owned Alejandro's, a popular Downtown
restaurant, from December 1994 until May 2000, according to city records.
After five years as a fugitive, Steele was arrested in June on a charge of
possessing marijuana with intent to distribute. After his arrest, the only
income Steele listed on a financial affidavit was $30,000 from the sale of
the restaurant.
Steele's attorney, Sean Bruner, said Steele pleaded innocent. He is asking
that the case be combined with a related case filed against Steele in
Cleveland.
"Often what they do is have a business that is probably marginal,"
Dickinson said. If the traffickers own a pizzeria, they'll put the drug
proceeds into the business "so that the pizza place looks like it sells a
hundred pizzas a night when it only sells 10."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 17:50:49 -0800
From: Dale Gieringer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (by way of "D. Paul Stanford"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CA: Humboldt MJ Growers Move Indoors
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Thursday, December 20, 2001 - 7:12:29 AM MST
Despite CAMP numbers, Humboldt still the greenest
By James Faulk
The Times-Standard Eureka
EUREKA -- Humboldt County may still be the tops in marijuana growing, with
area growers simply moving their gardens indoors to avoid the watchful eyes
of helicopters.
An account in Wednesday's Times-Standard may have given the impression the
county was not among the leaders. It, in fact, still is.
A press release from the State Attorney General's Office said Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting teams seized just 12,224 plants in Humboldt
County during the 2001 growing season. That number represents a big decline
from previous years, and put the county in eighth place among 23 counties
for outdoor marijuana seizures.
Sgt. Wayne Hanson of the Sheriff's Drug Enforcement Unit said Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting teams may have pulled less out of the ground in
Humboldt County, but the plants are still here.
"Marijuana is an epidemic in Humboldt County," he said, adding that the
county leads the state in indoor marijuana busts.
Since the beginning of the year, authorities have seized 50,000 indoor
marijuana plants in Humboldt County, Hanson said. The second highest total
is in Mendocino County with 33,000. After that, the numbers fall off
dramatically. Los Angeles County, for example, seized only 143 indoor plants.
"These 50,000 are just the tip of an iceberg," Hanson said.
Authorities have also seized $350,000 in cash this year.
Those numbers mean the "Emerald Triangle" is still on or near the top of
the heap for marijuana production, Hanson said.
Hanson said fewer plants were found outdoors because CAMP took some of its
resources out of the county to fight a burgeoning cultivation problem in
the Central Valley. Normally, Humboldt County would have CAMP helicopters
in the skies for eight weeks, but this year CAMP was in the air for only 16
days.
Since the teams were here less, they found less.
Marijuana growers have also evolved, Hanson said, and brought their
operations indoors. They can reap several crops a year that way, as opposed
to one crop that can be grown outside, Hanson said.
Moving gardens inside presents a greater risk to the public, Hanson said.
Indoor operations are an environmental danger because growers are seldom
careful with how they dispose of generator fuel and other hazardous materials.
In addition, the heavy use of generators can result in fires that threaten
the homes of growers, as well as neighboring structures.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, December 20, 2001
Article Last Updated:
Thursday, December 20, 2001 - 7:12:10 AM MST
More marijuana gardens found in south county
By The Times-Standard Eureka
GARBERVILLE -- Two recent Humboldt County Drug Enforcement Unit marijuana
busts resulted in the seizure of more 2,100 marijuana plants.
Two men were arrested Tuesday in Garberville for allegedly running an
indoor marijuana garden.
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department reported that William Westerhoff,
44, and Stuart Reuter, 43, both from Garberville, were arrested after
deputies discovered 781 marijuana plants in an indoor growing operation on
Red Rock Road.
Officers also seized 12 pounds of processed marijuana.
The men were arrested on suspicion of cultivating and possessing marijuana
for sale.
Another bust occurred in Blocksburg Sunday.
The Sheriff's Department reported that a California Department of Fish and
Game officer was investigating the report of shots fired in the area. The
officer found one man near the scene, Michael Downey, 39, of Carlotta.
While talking to him, the officer noticed several freshly cut marijuana
plants in Downey's truck. When the officer attempted an arrest, Downey
reportedly fled the scene. The officer later discovered an indoor marijuana
garden in the area.
After obtaining a search warrant, authorities seized 1,131 marijuana plants.
Officers then went to Downey's residence near Swain's Flat with another
search warrant. They reportedly found another 201 plants growing in a shed
behind his home.
Downey was arrested there without incident for allegedly resisting arrest,
cultivating marijuana and possessing the drug for sale.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 17:17:37 -0500
From: Andrew Seidenfeld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: restore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: HALF of high schoolers smoke pot, study says.
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Going to high school is a gateway to drug abuse.
Therefore the federal government has declared that going to high school will
be outlawed.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011219/hl/teen_smoking_3.html
Study Shows U.S. Teens Smoking Less
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Smoking is declining sharply among American teens, a
finding that health experts are hailing as good news for the public's future
health.
<snip>
The findings were reported Wednesday in the annual Monitoring the Future
survey conducted for the government by the of University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research. The report surveyed 44,300 students
nationwide in grades 8, 10, and 12.
Among other survey findings:
-Marijuana: 49.0 percent of 12th graders had used it at some time, up from
48.8 percent the year before; 10th grade, 40.1 percent, down from 40.3; 8th
grade, 20.4 percent, up from 20.3.
Website for the study: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 16:12:43 -0800
From: "video mon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Press Release: BC Marijuana Party "Feds Borrow $40,000 an hour for War on
Pot
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
December 20, 2001
For immediate rlease
BCMarijuana Party
http://bcmarijuanaparty.ca/
Auditor General's Report
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/0111ce.html
BC Marijuana Party Leader Dana Larsen, after reviewing the Canadian Auditor
General's Report on the federal government's prohibition strategy, said that
it shows the situation is worse than anyone could have imagined. The Auditor
Generals report criticized the federal government for a complete lack of
accountability and confirmed that the federal government spends 500 Million
dollars a year on its prohibition strategy, and that virtually all of it is
spent on law enforcement.
"Sometimes its hard to understand numbers of such a magnitude", Larsen said.
"If you break this number of $500 million down to smaller components it
works out to about $60,000 an hour or $1000 a minute. This is a good
statistic when combined with the fact that 66% of all drug charges are for
marijuana offences."
"This means that the federal government is spending almost 70% of that
hourly budget, or $40,000 an hour on the illusion of "marijuana
enforcement."
Larson also noted that while the nations balance of payments may be even,
Canada is still heavily in debt." So the federal Liberal government is
BORROWING $40,000 dollars an hour to police the nations tobacco pipes."
"Think of the wonderful things our communities could do with the kind of
money", Larsen said," We would be better off if the federal Liberals
borrowed and spent that $40,000 dollars an hour for a war on homelessness
or hunger, as opposed to prosecuting people for consuming vegetables."
Larsen said that such a lack of accountability is no longer acceptable in
the 21st century and that a commission of inquiry should be formed to get to
the bottom of who is responsible for this grand waste of taxpayers money and
why it continues.
(30)
For more information contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 19:04:14 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Prayers from Hawai'i
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 11:22:50 -1000
>Subject: If yer a one fer prayin', now's the time ;)
>From: "David C. Frankel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>Aloha All Hemp Activists and Interested Parties,
>
>PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL LISTS:
>
>We are expecting a ruling in the next few days from the Ninth Circuit Court
>of Appeals on the Hemp Industry's motion to stay the illegal DEA regulations
>on hemp food and oils.
>
>Now is the time, if you have faith in the power of prayer, to join us, every
>day, morning, noon and night - and especially at 4:20 - every time it
>happens ~ to pray that the judges will feel the power of a good decision,
>preferably this Friday, or maybe Monday, if they tap into their consciences,
>they must grant our motion.
>
>Not to grant our motion cuts against the very grain of Life itself ~ we must
>pray so that the judges will have the strength to avoid the temptation of an
>ego power trip and will instead GO WITH THE FLOW - not against it.
>
>All they have to do is preserve the status quo and let us have a day in
>court -
>
>Simply put, my prayer is
>
>
>Creator, we pray that our stay of the DEA hemp regulations is granted in the
>next few days. We pray that the judges will align with Life's energy not
>against it.
>
>We pray that you will allow those judges to realize the unfairness of
>further restricting the hemp seed and that the judges will be moved by their
>higher selves to stay the DEA hemp regulations.
>
>We thank You for granting these prayers in the highest and best interests of
>All That Is.
>
>Amen
>
>-- repeat three (3) times --
>
>Please join me :)
>
>Namaste :)
>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 13:50:26 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: NC: Officers Held Without Bond In Drug Case
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Thu, 20 Dec 2001
Source: Greensboro News & Record (NC)
Copyright: 2001 Greensboro News & Record, Inc.
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://www.news-record.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/173
Author: Cheris Hodges, Staff Writer, News & Record
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)
OFFICERS HELD WITHOUT BOND IN DRUG CASE
WINSTON-SALEM -- Six men -- including three Davidson County Sheriff's
deputies and an Archdale police officer facing federal drug charges -- will
remain in jail without bond, a federal judge ruled Wednesday during a bond
hearing.
Remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals in the Forsyth County
Detention Center are: Lt. David Woodall, 34, Lt. William Monroe Rankin, 32,
and Sgt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49, all of the Davidson County
Sheriff's Office; Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley, 35; Wyatt
Nathan Kepley, 26, and Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza, 23.
Soza's hearing was held separately from that of the other five defendants.
The six men were indicted for distributing 220 pounds of marijuana, 11
pounds of cocaine, anabolic steroids and Ecstasy during the past year.
All pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled
substances.
U.S. District Court Judge Russell Eliason made his ruling to hold the men
without bond despite a strong showing of community support for them. The
courtroom was filled with friends and family members, who sat quietly as
the judge gave his decision.
Dressed in orange Forsyth County Detention Center jumpsuits and shackled to
one another, the defendants listened as FBI Agent Philip Celestini
testified Woodall threatened to kill Soza's children if Soza did not use
the $32,000 Woodall had given to buy cocaine.
Woodall told an FBI witness about the threat in a recorded conversation,
Celestini said.
He also testified that when agents searched an outbuilding on Virginia
Drive in Thomasville that Woodall had access to, they found between
one-half kilogram and 1 kilogram of cocaine, plastic bags used to package
cocaine and vacuum sealing materials.
When Westmoreland's home in Thomasville was searched, Celestini said,
agents recovered 37 firearms, one with the serial number removed. Agents
also found residue from cocaine and marijuana.
"State Bureau of Investigation agents received a phone call after the
search from a witness wanting to turn over a package he received from
Westmoreland the night before his arrest," Celestini said.
The unnamed witness handed over a Nextel phone box containing $22,500in
cash to agents. Celestini said the witness called the FBI again later to
turn over another box of cash he had received from Westmoreland. That box
held $8,694.
"The witness didn't want to be linked to the conspiracy," he said.
Celestini said cocaine and marijuana weren't found when the homes of
Shetley, Rankin and Kepley were searched.
However, 16 firearms and $9,700 were taken from Rankin at his in-laws'
home, Celestini said. A .45-caliber handgun and steroids were taken from
the apartment of Kepley's girlfriend.
Agents also seized steroids from a storage facility Rankin was using,
Celestini testified.
Eliason scheduled another bond hearing for Rankin in January to discuss the
possibility of his release, which may include house arrest.
"This will not be before the holidays," he said. "I want to give the U.S.
attorney time to do further investigation (into Rankin's role)."
Eliason said from the evidence he heard, Rankin seemed to be the one person
in the conspiracy that the other men didn't trust.
Court dates for the other men have not been scheduled.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:00:11 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: MS: Marijuana Seizure Latest I-10 Bust
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Wed, 19 Dec 2001
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2001 The Sun Herald
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://web.sunherald.com/content/biloxi/2000/12/28/pageone/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Robin Fitzgerald
MARIJUANA SEIZURE LATEST I-10 BUST
Sheriff's deputies say 100 pounds found in car
GULFPORT - The seizure of more than 100 pounds of marijuana early Tuesday
is the latest of several major drug busts along Interstate 10.
Deputies with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department said they found the
marijuana in the trunk of a 1984 Grand Mercury Marquis around 1 a.m. after
stopping the driver for careless driving. Narcotics agents estimated the
street value at between $120,000 and $160,000, depending on whether the
marijuana was to be sold by the ounce or by the pound.
More than eight drug busts on I-10 within the past six weeks have stopped
"drugs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from ending up in a
community," said Detective Sgt. Chris Loposser of the Coastal Narcotics
Enforcement Team.
CNET is made up of investigators from Harrison and Stone counties and the
state Bureau of Narcotics.
The drugs may be coming from Texas or Mexico, he said.
Sergio Enrique Zuarez, 38, was heading east Tuesday when deputies stopped
him and found he was in the United States illegally, the department said.
He was held at the Harrison County jail for the U.S. Border Patrol.
Last Friday, deputies stopped a Texas man for a traffic violation and said
they found two kilograms of cocaine, valued at $100,000, in the engine
block of his SUV. He also was headed east. Anastacio E. Saenz, 30, was
charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver,
the same charges filed against Zuarez.
"The interstate has always been a threat (for drug deliveries)," Loposser
said, "but since Sept. 11 and increased airport security, it is likely more
people are using the interstate to run drugs."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Beth
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:04:08 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: NORML WPR 12/2/01 - Year end top ten list!
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
NORML Foundation
1001 Connecticut Ave., NW
Ste. 710
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-8751 (p)
202-483-0057 (f)
www.norml.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
December 20, 2001
Today's topic:
* 2001: The Year In Review
2001: The Year In Review
NORML's Top 10 Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy
#1: Europe Goes to Pot: Great Britain, EU Abandon Marijuana Prohibition
UK officials branded pot prohibition an endangered species in 2001,
announcing in October that police would no longer arrest individuals for
marijuana possession, and that pot would be federally reclassified as a
"soft" drug. Britain's new policy, expected to be formalized by spring
2002, is similar to those of its European Union neighbors, most of whom
no longer criminalize the use of marijuana or other drugs. Read the full
story at: http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-10-25.shtml#story2.
#2: Zogby Poll Finds 61% of Americans Oppose Pot Prohibition
Americans' opposition to the government's war on pot rose significantly
in 2001, according to a national Zogby poll of 1,024 likely voters
commissioned by the NORML Foundation. Sixty-one percent of respondents
said they opposed arresting and jailing nonviolent marijuana smokers in
light of the increased threat of terrorism since September 11. In
addition, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents said they opposed the
use of federal law enforcement agencies to close dispensaries that
distribute medicinal marijuana in states that have legalized its use.
Read the full story at: http://www.norml.org/news/zogby.shtml.
#3: Canada Legalizes Medical Marijuana
Canada became the first country in the world to sanction the use and
cultivation of medical pot by qualified individuals, enacting nationwide
regulations in August that enable patients and their caregivers to
legally grow and possess medicinal cannabis. Ironically, Canada's policy
change came mere months after the US Supreme Court affirmed federal
provisions in the Controlled Substances Act defining marijuana as having
"no currently accepted medical use." Read the full story in NORML's
Spring 2001 newsletter at: http://www.norml.org/newsletter/index.html.
#4: Supreme Court Rules on Medical Pot Distribution
The US Supreme Court ruled in May that patient support groups who grow
and supply medical marijuana for the seriously ill are not exempt from
federal law by the defense of "medical necessity." Contrary to popular
interpretation, the ruling did not strike down or invalidate state laws
legalizing the medical use of marijuana by individual patients - a
separate issue that was not before the Court. Read the full story in
NORML's Spring 2001 newsletter at:
http://www.norml.org/newsletter/index.html.
#5: Nevada Reduces Nation's Toughest Pot Laws to a Fine-Only Offense
Nevada's pot laws received a long-overdue overhaul in 2001, as
legislators reduced pot possession from a four-year felony to a fine-only
offense, and enacted legislation legalizing marijuana's medical use. The
legislature was the first in 24 years (and twelfth overall) to eliminate
jail time and criminal records for minor marijuana offenders, and the
ninth state since 1996 to legalize the use of medical cannabis under a
doctor's supervision. Read the full story at:
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-06-07.shtml.
#6: Pot Arrests For Year 2000 Hit All Time High
Clinton's parting shot to the marijuana community was one for the record
books. According to the FBI's Year 2000 Uniform Crime Report, police
arrested an estimated 734,498 persons for pot violations in 2000 - the
final year of the Clinton regime. The total is the highest ever recorded
by the FBI, and comprises just under half of all drug arrests recorded so
far this millennium. Read the full story at:
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-10-25.shtml.
#7: DEA Wages War on California's Medical Pot Clubs
In a major federal crackdown on California's medical marijuana providers,
law enforcement officials this fall raided a pair of state medical
marijuana dispensaries: the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in West
Hollywood and the California Medical Research Center in Cool. Charges
have yet to be filed against either organization, though grand juries are
hearing testimony and both organizations have ceased distributing medical
pot to patients. Read the full story at:
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-11-01.shtml.
#8: New Mexico Governor Calls for Pot Legalization at NORML Conference
Challenging the myth that marijuana-law reform is the "third rail" of
politics, two-time Republican Governor Gary Johnson called for pot's
legalization at NORML's annual conference in Washington, DC. "I'm for
marijuana legalization," he told attendees during NORML's luncheon
address - broadcast live on C-SPAN. "I think that decriminalization
turns it back on half of the problem." Read the full story in NORML's
Spring 2001 newsletter at: http://www.norml.org/newsletter/index.html.
#9: Bi-Partisan Bill to Legalize Medical Pot Introduced in Congress
For the first time in nearly 20 years, politicians from both sides of the
aisle - Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) - joined forces to
introduce legislation in Congress to legalize medical marijuana. Their
bill, H.R. 2592 (the "States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act"),
presently awaits action from the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
Subcommittee on Health. Read the full story at:
http://www.norml.org/laws/fedleg2001.shtml.
#10: DEA Okays State-Sponsored Medical Marijuana Trials
Ending nearly two decades of de facto prohibition on medical marijuana
research, the DEA in November approved three state-sponsored patient
trials on the therapeutic potential of smoked marijuana. The trials will
begin next year at the University of California's Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research (CMCR). Eight other FDA-approved protocols remain
pending before the DEA. Read the full story at:
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-12-13.shtml.
-end-
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End of restore V1 #168
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