Operation liquid mail - Illegal Drugs and Trafficking
USPS Operation liquid mail
Opening quote: Postal Inspectors report that the Internet is used in conjunction with the U.S. Mail in approximately 15 percent of its narcotics investigations. In Operation Liquid Mail, Inspectors arrested 120 customers who ordered and received illegal drugs via the Internet and U.S. Mail at 84 locations across the country.
The Postal Inspection Service interdicts mailings of illegal drugs and drug proceeds to protect postal employees from the violence often related to drug trafficking and to preserve the integrity of the U.S. Mail. Working in concert with other law enforcement agencies, Postal Inspectors arrested 1,385 individuals this fiscal year for drug trafficking and money laundering via the U.S. Mail. Seizures from the mail included roughly 4,888 pounds of illegal narcotics and approximately 770,644 units of steroids. Postal Inspection Service investigations also resulted in the seizure of about $1.6 million in cash and monetary instruments, five vehicles, and 66 firearms.
Postal Inspectors from New York and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and other state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies initiated Operation Liquid Mail, an investigation that began in January 2002 of the activities of a Canadian man who was trafficking large quantities of GBL (gamma-butryrolactone) via the U.S. Mail and the Internet. GBL is used to manufacture GHB (gamma hydroxtbuyric acid), a central nervous system depressant banned by the Food and Drug Administration in 1990 and commonly referred to as the "date rape" drug; it can result in unconsciousness, seizures, severe respiratory depression, or coma. The man set up Web sites to process orders for the drug, which he mailed to customers around the world, collecting several millions of dollars in revenue. Investigators arrested him in Quebec on September 18, 2002, at which time they seized from him banking records and two computers. A search of a related warehouse resulted in the recovery of 605 gallons of GBL, 55 gallons of 1,4 butanediol, 350 cases of 1,3 butanediol, and 600 pounds of potassium hydrochloride. Postal Inspectors also identified and arrested 120 of the man's business customers at 84 locations across the country.
The following paragraphs are examples of other Postal Inspection Service investigations of illegal drug trafficking via the mail in FY 2002.
Postal Inspectors and San Diego Narcotics Task Force agents arrested a man on May 16, 2002, for distributing anabolic steroids, ketamine, and other controlled substances via the U.S. Mail. The suspect advertised products and received orders via the Internet and then distributed the products by Express Mail or Priority Mail. He allegedly distributed approximately $5,000 worth of controlled substances per day to more than 300 customers across the country.
On May 22, 2002, Postal Inspectors and agents from the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna (MCS) Narcotics Unit and U.S. Customs arrested a man for selling illegal steroids over the Internet and distributing them via the U.S. Mail. The defendant rented several addresses at a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) in Marietta, Georgia, allegedly in order to traffic illegal narcotics to other addresses, including a CMRA in San Diego. The Postal Inspection Service's Computer Forensics staff analyzed evidence seized under warrant from the suspect's residence and alleged that each of his customers generally placed orders exceeding $2,000 for the steroids.
On October 3, 2001, two men were sentenced for their roles in distributing eight pounds of crack cocaine and nine pounds of heroin from Vallejo, California, to Rock Island, Illinois, via Express Mail. The men were sentenced to 27 years and 22 years, respectively, in federal prison. They hid the narcotics in vacuum-sealed cans of tuna fish before mailing them. During the execution of a search warrant by Postal Inspectors and Rock Island narcotics officers, one of the men tried to elude capture by jumping out of a second-story apartment window. He broke both his legs in the fall, and was admitted to a secured unit in a local hospital. After receiving medical attention, the man escaped from the secured unit and remained a fugitive for over two years before being located and arrested in Omaha, Nebraska.
In December 2001, a Des Moines, Iowa, man was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme to distribute methamphetamine and narcotics proceeds through the U.S. Mail. An investigation by Postal Inspectors led to the disruption of a ring of six suspects who conspired to distribute approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine throughout the Midwest. Four others in the ring received federal sentences ranging from four to 17 years in prison. A sixth member of the ring remains an international fugitive.
Postal Inspectors in St. Louis, Missouri, concluded a two-year investigation in February 2002 of four men responsible for distributing more than 40 pounds of cocaine and narcotics proceeds via the U.S. Mail and other private couriers. During the course of the investigation, Inspectors seized $111,000 in cash, five weapons, bulletproof vests, and fake police insignia used by the group. The men relied on a local business to conceal their transactions. They were sentenced to federal terms ranging from four to 10 years in prison.
A three-year investigation of a major, multistate drug distribution ring investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Jackson County, Missouri, Drug Task Force concluded in FY 2002. The ringleader orchestrated the distribution of 100 pounds of methamphetamine and other narcotics in the Kansas City area. Ring members transported the drugs from Los Angeles via Express Mail and Federal Express to addresses in Missouri and Kansas. Twenty suspects were indicted as a result of the investigation, and all pled guilty in federal court, receiving sentences ranging from five to 17 years in prison.
On May 16, 2002, four Illinois men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to deliver controlled substances. The four were arrested one month earlier when they attempted to sell approximately 86 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover Postal Inspector assigned to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Designer Drug Task Force. In conjunction with three other arrests in October 2001 and another in December 2001, this latest group of arrests marked the end of a Filipino ring that had been distributing crystal methamphetamine in Chicago. The ring used various methods, including U.S. Mail, private couriers, and body carriers to distribute and transport the illegal drugs. The methamphetamine was produced in the Philippines and Mexico and then smuggled into the United States. Distributors in Las Vegas and California brought the drugs to the Chicago area for distribution and sale.
Quote: Postal Inspectors in Philadelphia and Los Angeles initiated an investigation in June 2002 of two Philadelphia brothers who were distributing methamphetamine via Express Mail between the two cities. Inspectors discovered the men were secreting methamphetamine inside caulking tubes and transporting the tubes to Philadelphia via Express Mail. As with many drug networks, dealers used the U.S. Mail along with other transportation methods to distribute narcotics and narcotics proceeds. After taking the brothers into custody, Inspectors identified their conspirators who drove the methamphetamine from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Philadelphia. Inspectors additionally arrested another two conspirators and seized 26 pounds of methamphetamine secreted in two tires in the back of their vehicle; more of the illegal drug was found hidden in the motor housing of the windshield wipers.
Employee Drug Investigations: Postal Inspectors investigate the selling of narcotics by postal employees while on postal property or on duty. Information on the possession or personal use of illegal drugs by postal employees is referred through postal management to the Employee Assistance Program for attention. In FY 2002, Postal Inspectors arrested 34 postal employees suspected of possessing or using illegal drugs on duty, and 24 employees were removed from the Postal Service.
Following are examples of Postal Inspection Service investigations of narcotics-related offenses by postal employees during FY 2002.
Postal Service managers requested Inspectors' assistance in addressing suspected illegal narcotics activity by employees at the Englewood Station in Chicago, Illinois. A subsequent investigation resulted in the arrests of three postal employees and an accomplice. A letter carrier was placed on emergency suspension from postal duties following his arrest on May 16 for distributing a controlled substance. Two mail handlers were also arrested and suspended, and the outside accomplice was arrested.
Following a two-year investigation by Postal Inspectors, a former postal supervisor, who was an "acting" postmaster in Massachusetts, was sentenced in January 2002 to eight years and one month in prison and four years' supervised release. Inspectors determined that, between 1990 and 1998, the former employee opened post office boxes for the purpose of receiving marijuana through the mail. Each package weighed between 20 and 30 pounds.
Quote: Postal Inspectors use surveillance cameras to identify customers suspected of mailing prohibited items, including illegal drugs, via Express Mail.
LSD chemist sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A California man found guilty in March on charges of possession and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 20 grams of LSD has been sentenced to life in prison without parole by a federal judge in Kansas. A conspirator was given 30 years.
The two men were responsible for making the majority of LSD sold in this country, and the availability of the drug in the United States was reduced by 95 percent after their arrest, said Drug Enforcement Administration agent William J. Renton, Jr.
U.S. District Judge Richard D. Rogers in Topeka sentenced William L. Pickard, 58, of Mill Valley, Calif., to the life term, and gave a 30-year sentence to Clyde Apperson, 48, of Sunnyvale, Calif., also on the condition that he cannot be paroled.
Mr. Renton, who heads the agency's St. Louis division, said the sentences handed down Tuesday follow guilty verdicts March 31 after an 11-week jury trial in what was described at the time as the single largest seizure of an operable LSD laboratory in DEA history.
He said that during a raid, agents seized more than 90 pounds of LSD and 300 pounds of LSD precursor chemicals with the ability to create an additional 28 pounds of the illicit drug.
He said in DEA history, there have only been four seizures of complete LSD labs and three of them involved Pickard and Apperson including a lab in Mountain View, Calif., in 1998, a lab in Oregon in 1996, and the latest seizure, a lab in Wamego, Kansas.
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren in Kansas said DEA agents searched a silo near Wamego on Oct. 31, 2000, and found an LSD lab packed in storage boxes. A week later, he said, Pickard and Apperson were moving the illegal lab when they were stopped by the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Mr. Melgren said Apperson was arrested driving a rental truck containing the lab. Pickard, who was following the truck in a separate vehicle, fled on foot and was arrested the next day at a farm outside Wamego.
Fourteen canisters of a chemical required to produce LSD valued at over $1 million were found at the silo, he said.
According to court testimony, Pickard and Apperson previously manufactured LSD in Santa Fe, N.M., where every five weeks the lab produced about 2.2 pounds of LSD, about 10 million doses that cost less than 1 cent a dose to produce and would sell for as much as $10 a dose.
Authorities said the LSD was shipped to California and later to Europe for distribution.
"Our nation's war on drugs is not limited to major metropolitan areas or border states." Mr. Melgren said. "Manufacturers and traffickers of illegal drugs are increasingly moving to less populated areas in an attempt to avoid detection. This case clearly demonstrates that moving such illegal activity to Kansas is a mistake. ...
"The message from this case is clear: Drug dealers and manufacturers may not consider Kansas a place where they may get away with their illegal activities."
Mr. Renton said the sentencing of Pickard and Apperson brought to a conclusion their "significant role in the international production and distribution of LSD."
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031126-110958-8471r.htm
DXM abuse leads to controled purchase in Jan 2005. Must be age 18+ to purchase any product that contains DXM (Dextromethorphan)
By Sara Vincent
Teens found a new drug to abuse. Users are buying over-the-counter cold and cough medicine to get high. They are mainly buying Coricidin Cold and Cough; the users call it “skittles”, “red devils”, “crazy eights”, “triple c”, or “c”, which contains 30mg of Dextromethorphan HBr and 4mg of Chlorpheniramine Maleate. There are over 80 different brands of cold medicine that contain this drug, Dextromethorphan, or as abusers call it, DXM.
These users are taking this drug in very high doses, such as anywhere from 8-30 pills or three to five times the recommended dose, depending on how often they use it and their tolerance level. “I built a tolerance to the eight pills I took very fast, so I decided to take more and I kept doing that until I found myself taking 16-20 pills just to feel the craziness of ‘c’,” said an anonymous 16 year old. The back of the box states not to exceed four pills in 24 hours.
The effects of this drug are known to be psychedelic and very random, similar to LSD and/or PCP. Users sometimes become either overly happy and excited or very anger and violent. These abusers also say that these “trips” are different every single time they use DXM. “The best part is never knowing how your trip is going to turn out!” says an ex-user, Melissa Carter. These trips usually last anywhere from 6-12 hours.
What some users do not know is how dangerous this drug really is. The Chlorpheniramine Maleate, that is an active ingredient in Coricidin, is an antihistamine that, at high doses, can cause heart failure, coma, and possibly death. There have been hundreds of overdose cases just this year all over the country and too many to count in the past.
There are many negative effects from this drug being abused, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, dizziness, schizophrenic thoughts and acts, depression, confusion, emotional complications, major and minor metal illnesses, addiction, mental and physical flashbacks, kidney failure, and liver damage.
Users have been choosing to do this drug over any other because it is hard to detect. Parents can not look at the eyes to see redness; the only difference in the eyes is the pupils become very large. There is also no scent to Coricidin. The user will become very moody and emotional. They will also have bouts of rage and anger. They become very aggressive at times as if they were using PCP or heroin.
Katie Lee, a local girl who abused this drug and was hospitalized a year ago said, “we all just kept taking it thinking we were just having fun, having no clue we were on the verge of killing ourselves. We just got so addicted to it that we would almost do anything just to get our hands on it. No one had told us about the dangers or warned us, we just thought we were getting high.”
Other users and doctors have said that it is like rolling the dice every time a person uses this drug. These abusers put their life on the line every single time they use this. Another local girl who asked to remain anonymous said, “The high was like none other. You felt so content and that nothing could ever go wrong. You had no worries and nothing mattered. Your whole body becomes numb and your vision is totally messed up and you hallucinate a lot.
The users are mainly teenagers ages 13-18 because it is cheap, legal, and easy to get. All the abusers have to do is walk or drive up to the grocery store and buy their drugs. Doctors and government officials have passed a bill that as of January 2005, ALL medicines containing the drug Dextromethorphan will be only sold behind the counter and you must be eighteen or older to purchase it. The users are mainly teenagers ages 13-18 because it is cheap, legal, and easy to get. All the abusers have to do is walk or drive up to the grocery store and buy their drugs.
School drug raid causes uproar
Nov. 7 -- The Goose Creek, S.C., police officers who raided a high school with guns drawn did not find the drugs they were searching for. WCBD-TV’s Angie Mizzell reports
http://www.msnbc.com/news/990598.asp?0cv=CB10&cp1=1
GOOSE CREEK, S.C., Nov. 7 Police stormed into Stratford High School early Wednesday and ordered students to the ground as they conducted a search for drugs and weapons. The search came up empty, and now the school’s principal is facing questions about whether the show of force was necessary. Click Here to watch WCBD-TV’s report on the raid.
Drug Sniffing Dog Back On The Job After Sniffing Heroin
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A drug dog is back on the job at the Orange County Jail. He got sick while sniffing through inmate mail. Officers say someone was trying to get heroin into the jail when a K-9 named Bow stopped the package.
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He's not the biggest K-9, nor is he the strongest. But Bow, Orange County Jail's drug detecting dog showed that he has as much fight in him as any of his fellow four-legged friends. That became clear when he intercepted a letter going into the jail that had heroin hidden under the stamp.
"When he got to that letter he started snorting and he sat and turned around really surprised and was making an ugly face and he had white powder on the end of his nose," explains corrections officer Elaine Herbert.
In all of the searches and all of the rounds, Herbert never saw her partner act so strange. Apparently, the tiny baggy of heroin in the letter opened up. Bow got a nose full and got sick.
"It's scary because we are close. If anything ever happened to him, I don't know what I'd do," she says.
Bow was rushed to the vet. They gave him a shot and he was back on the job the very next day, better than ever. That was a relief, not just to Herbert, but to the rest of the staff as well.
"Before we brought the dog in, our staff were finding drugs on the average of once or twice a week," says Capt. Stephen Pierce.
Now, it's more like once or twice a month. Officers credit the fear of being sniffed out as the main reason for the drop.
Herbert says she'll try to keep a closer eye on Bow, but let him do what he does best.
Drug sniffing dogs, like Bow, are such a deterrent, that officers say they find more drugs outside in public places here at the jail than they do inside.
Nicotine Improves Memory And Helps Brain Repair Itself
The remarkable protective effects of nicotine the addictive chemical in tobacco” on the brain are continuing to surprise scientists. One recent study has found that one of nicotine's metabolites, cotinine, may improve memory and protect brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Another new study shows that nicotine can help improve some of the learning and memory problems associated with hypothyroidism. Such studies suggest that nicotine” or drugs that mimic nicotine may one day prove beneficial in the treatment of neurological disorders.
"These findings don't mean people should smoke," warns neuroscientist Michael Kuhar of Emory University. "Any benefits from the nicotine in cigarettes or other tobacco products are far outweighed by the proven harm of using those products. But pure nicotine-like compounds as medications do show promise for treating human disorders."
But don't inhale just yet. In another study, the children of women who smoke during pregnancy have been found to be at greater risk for a wide variety of emotional and behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder. Now, new animal studies from the Yale University School of Medicine demonstrate that the effects of developmental nicotine on emotional learning last into adulthood.
"If we can identify the mechanism for this long-term behavioral change, we may be able to develop new therapies for human emotional disorders that are linked to prenatal nicotine exposure," says Sarah King, PhD.
For their most recent study, King and her colleague, Marina Picciotto, used an animal model of emotional learning known as passive avoidance. This model measures how long an animal avoids a dark chamber in which it had previously received a mild electric shock. King and Picciotto found that nicotine-treated mice showed a hypersensitive response and avoided the dark compartment longer than non-exposed mice.
This response was identical to one the researchers had reported on previously (in the Journal of Neuroscience) in genetically altered mice that lack high affinity nicotine receptors as a result of a knockout mutation. "We believe that nicotine exposure during development the same kind of exposure that occurs in mothers who smoke during pregnancy disrupts normal nicotine receptor activity, much like the knockout mutation, and that this leads to altered emotional learning in adulthood," says King.
King and Picciotto have also identified a novel brain circuit glutamate neurons, which originate in the cortex and project to the thalamus (corticothalmic neurons) as the likely site where changes occur in the brain during early nicotine exposure. They are currently working to identify the molecular changes that developmental exposure to nicotine triggers in the corticothalamic neurons.
Each year, about 2 million teenagers become regular smokers, according to the American Lung Association. Because the brain continues to develop during adolescence and beyond scientists at George Mason University decided to investigate the effect that exposure to nicotine during adolescence has on later behavioral functioning. The researchers implanted 46 rats with small minipumps that dispensed either 3 or 6 mg of nicotine per kilogram of body weight per day or no nicotine at all (controls). When the animals reached adulthood, they were tested for spatial learning and memory.
Nicotine made a significant difference in the animals' performance in the tests. Low and high doses of nicotine altered behavior in opposite directions: The low-dose group tended to learn faster and the high-dose group tended to learn slower than the control animals. "Whether performance improved or declined is probably less important than the demonstration that nicotine does produce long-lasting changes in the animals' performance, presumably reflecting long-lasting effects on brain development," says Robert Smith, PhD.
Although this research was done in rats, the processes of brain development are similar in humans, which leads Smith to believe that teenagers who smoke aren't risking only addiction, but also lasting changes in the development of their brains. Smith and his colleagues are now examining the genetic mechanisms that are involved in producing this lasting change in behavior.
During times of stress, smokers tend to increase the number of cigarettes they light up perhaps as a form of self-medication to counteract the harmful effects of stress on the brain. Stress, which may range from mild anxiety to posttraumatic stress disorder, has been shown to impair normal brain function, including learning and memory.
Researchers in the laboratories of Karim Alkadhi, PhD, at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy recently studied the effect of nicotine on stress-induced memory impairment in rats. They found that when stressed animals were given nicotine, they performed significantly better at short-term memory tests than stressed animals not given the chemical. In fact, the nicotine-treated stressed animals performed the same as unstressed (control) animals.
"Our findings are important to the understanding of the mechanism by which nicotine repairs stress-damaged brain function," says Abdulaziz Aleisa, a doctoral student at UH. "This research may eventually help in the designing of new, safe approaches to the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases approaches that mimic the beneficial effect of nicotine on stress."
In other studies, another doctoral student, Karem Al-Zoubi, and his colleagues have found that nicotine may improve some of the learning and memory problems associated with hypothyroidism, a common disorder in which the thyroid gland makes inadequate amounts of thyroid hormones. These findings add to the understanding of the mechanism by which nicotine repairs damaged brain function, and may one day help scientists design new, safe therapeutic agents for hypothyroidism and other conditions that cause brain impairments.
An estimated 5 million Americans have hypothyroidism, which produces a variety of symptoms, including such mental impairments as cloudy thinking, inability to concentrate, and memory problems. The elderly, particularly women, are more likely to develop the disease. Up to 10 percent of women over age 50 and up to 1.25 percent of men over age 60 have a defective thyroid gland that puts out less-than-adequate amounts of thyroid hormone in the blood. The condition can also strike infants and children, where its effects can be very serious. One in 4,000 babies are born with hypothyroidism. In infants, the condition often results in severe developmental problems, including mental retardation, and is referred to as cretinism.
To study the effect of nicotine on hypothyroidism, the researchers surgically removed most of the thyroid gland from a group of rats. They then treated some of those rats twice daily with a dose of nicotine that produced blood nicotine levels equivalent to those seen in the blood of smokers. All the animals were then given a test that has both learning and a memory phase.
The nicotine-treated hypothyroid animals made significantly fewer errors on both phases of the test than the untreated hypothyroid animals. In fact, the treated hypothyroid animals had a similar error rate to an untreated control group with normal thyroid glands and a nicotine-treated group with normal thyroid glands.
"Nicotine appears to repair learning and memory deficits caused by hypothyroidism, although it doesn't appear to improve learning and memory in normal animals," says Al-Zoubi.
The group is now working to uncover the means by which stress and hypothyroidism produce mental deficits and how nicotine corrects these deficits.
Cotinine, the primary breakdown product (metabolite) of nicotine, shows promise for improving memory and for protecting brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's but perhaps with less addiction and other side effects of nicotine, report scientists from the Medical College of Georgia. The researchers have also found that, in animal studies, the properties of cotinine may be helpful in treating the debilitating psychotic behavior of people with schizophrenia.
Up to now, cotinine's biggest use has been as a urine marker for tobacco use, although its potential use in curbing smoking also has been explored.
"Many people have thought that cotinine was an essentially inactive metabolite, but we have shown that at appropriate doses, it enhances memory and protects brain cells from dying, as well as having anti-psychotic properties," says Jerry Buccafusco, PhD.
Buccafusco became interested in studying cotinine after observing in studies that monkeys continued to derive memory benefits from nicotine long after the chemical had left the body. Nicotine is rapidly metabolized, and has a half life of about one hour. Cotinine is metabolized at a much lower rate; its half life is about 24 hours.
In one of their current studies, Buccafusco and his colleagues gave both young and old monkeys cotinine, then tested the animals' memory skills. The monkeys that received cotinine did better on the tests than those that didn't receive the metabolite results similar to those that Buccafusco has found with nicotine.
The researchers also studied cotinine's effect on neuron-like cells in culture. They used a model in which growth factor is taken away from the cells so that they start to die, just as they do in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. "We were surprised to find that cotinine was as effective as nicotine at preventing cell death," says Buccafusco.
In further studies involving rats, Buccafusco and his colleagues discovered that cotinine was as effective as standard anti-schizophrenic drugs in reducing the startle response the natural reaction to a loud noise. Normally, rats and people are startled by loud noises. If a less intense noise consistently precedes the loud one, however, the startle response tends to weaken but not in people with schizophrenia or in laboratory animals given schizophrenic-producing drugs.
"Cotinine was nearly as effective as a standard clinically used anti-schizophrenic drug in reversing this response," says Buccafusco. "This finding holds tremendous promise for patients suffering from schizophrenia since the drugs currently being used to treat this illness are often associated with severe long-term neurological side effects, such as parkinsonian-like tremors and memory problems."
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20031012195753data_trunc_sys.shtml
Are our drug laws too restrictive?
Sasha Shulgin
Are our drug laws, maybe too harsh or strict? Could substances like LSD and ecstasy actually have therapeutic uses, which we’ve never discovered because it’s illegal for scientists to do research on them? Chemist Sasha Shulgin thinks so. He’s the man who introduced ecstasy to the world, and over the years he’s found 100s of hallucinogenic compounds in his backyard laboratory.
We caught up with him on his latest project looking for the hallucinogens in cactus plants. Invariably what happens is, he discovers the substances, he tests them on himself and then the Drug Enforcement Agency bans them. No further scientific investigation for potential good can be done.
Ecstasy, for example, was being used for therapeutic purposes in the 1980s and was showing great potential. Psychiatrists gave it to people who were suffering Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, to help them open up. But the therapy and any scientific investigations into its worth – was abruptly stopped when he drug became illegal.
Sasha believes there is great medical potential in many of the other substances he’s found as well. (full transcript...)
Reporter/Producer: Graham Phillips
Researcher: Paul Grocott
Story Contacts:
Alexander T. Shulgin Email
1483 Shulgin Road
Lafayette, CA 94549
Ph: (925) 934-4930
F: (925) 934-5999
Alexander Shulgin has two books
One is called Pihkal, the other Tihkal
Dr Julie A Holland Email
Psychiatrist
Clinical Assistant Professor
School of Medicine, Psychiatry
New York University
550 First Avenue
New York NY 10016
Related Sites:
East Bay Express - Article
Sasha Shulgin, Psychedelic Chemist - Article
Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics
Article by Julie Holland
Julie Holland MD
Full Program Transcript:
Narration: Are our drug laws too restrictive? Could substances like LSD and ecstasy actually have therapeutic uses, which we’ve never discovered because it’s illegal for scientists to do research on them? Chemist Sasha Shulgin thinks so. He’s the man who introduced ecstasy to the world, and over the years he’s found 100s of hallucinogenic compounds in his backyard laboratory.
We caught up with him on his latest project looking for the hallucinogens in cactus plants. Invariably what happens is, he discovers the substances, he tests them on himself and then the Drug Enforcement Agency bans them. No further scientific investigation for potential good can be done.
Ecstasy, for example, was being used for therapeutic purposes in the 1980s and was showing great potential. Psychiatrists gave it to people who were suffering Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, to help them open up. But the therapy and any scientific investigations into its worth – was abruptly stopped when he drug became illegal.
Sasha believes there is great medical potential in many of the other substances he’s found as well.
Graham Phillips: I’m in a little town just out of San Francisco looking for mind-altering drugs - in cactus. Backyard chemist Sahsa Shulgin is showing me how to find the active ingredients in these hallucinogenic plants.
At 78, Sasha’s discovered hundreds of hallucinogenic drugs from all sorts of plants and other sources right in this laboratory. He finds them tests them on himself and because of our drug laws, they’re then banned. These laws are wrong says Sasha, because it means scientists can’t further investigate his discoveries. And drugs from LSD to ecstasy could have great medical potential.
Graham Phillips, Reporter: You think there are benefits for humanity from these psychedelic substances?
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: The potential is immense. Being able to get into aspects of your forgotten childhood. Get into things that you know to be so but have so repressed them and you’ll not acknowledge them to yourself it’s the value of therapy work in opening the barrier to communication. All of these have immense medical potential.
Narration: At the moment he’s looking for new drugs in cacti, because many species have never been chemically analysed before.
Graham Phillips: So what will we find in this one?
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: I really don’t know it’s never been looked at.
Narration: Sahsa gets a hint if a cactus is psychoactive from other fields of science.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: Well it’s about anthropology and sociology. People who mix with the Indians find out what they use over the centuries, why they use it how they identify it and what they call it.
Narration: To analyse a new cactus, Sasha chops up a small sample. He then adds a solvent to extract the cactus’s active compounds, and grinds the skin and gooey insides to a pulp. Then he heats the mixture in a vacuum, so the solvent boils off leaving behind pure cactus residue.
Graham Phillips: So that green there is what we want. That’s the cactus extract.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: That’s the extract of the cactus. That’s just a film of alkoloids; I doubt if there is more than a few micrograms there.
Narration: The few milligrams will be sent off for chemical analysis to see if today we’ve discovered a new hallucinogenic drug - or medicine, if you believe Sasha.
Narration: But could these substances really be therapeutic? We went to New York for a second opinion to the prestigious Bellevue Psychiatric Emergency Room, where Dr Julie Holland agrees with Sasha.
Dr Julie Holland, Psychiatrists: There is a worldwide group of psychiatrists and other medical doctors and therapists who do believe that there are certain hallucinogens which may be therapeutic if used in a medical setting, in a safe sort of psychiatrically supervised setting. “
Narration: Magic mushrooms could treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and peyote cactus could help alcoholics. And one of the drugs Sasha has unearthed shows particular therapeutic potential, says Julie MDMA, better known as ecstasy. It’s become a drug of abuse where high doses and unknown purity can make it dangerous - but Sasha introduced it to the world back in the 1970s as a potential medicine, and was the first human to try it and publish the results.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: I made the material and found that indeed it was a fascinating activity but not psychedelic it was more of a almost more of a stimulant but it had this opening up character that was unique I’d never seen it before.
Narration: Ecstasy’s ability to allow people to open up is now legendary, but Sasha told some psychiatrists about it back in the 1970s. By the1980s many were actually giving it to their patients during counselling.
Dr Julie Holland: It was being used in a few different ways. It was being given to couples in couples’ therapy to help the communication between two people. It was used in individual therapy especially people who had post traumatic stress disorder, people who had been through something very traumatic who needed to talk about it.
Narration: In Boulder Colorado Marcela was given MDMA by her therapist. After being raped as a teenager, for years she’d been suffering the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
Marcela: I could be in class, I could be walking down the street, I could be at a party I could be anywhere and something would trigger and I would start crying. I would be completely afraid and people just though I was crazy.
Narration: Just remembering the rape made her so scared she couldn’t talk it through and deal with it. But MDMA allowed her to beat her fear.
Marcela: MDMA takes away that fear. So in that moment you know you’re afraid. But it’s almost in that moment that you’re looking at yourself from the outside being afraid.
Dr Julie Holland: You know therapy takes a long time. It takes a long time to establish some trust with a therapist. It takes years and years to really get to the bottom of what’s going on. Here’s a medicine that can make it happen in one or two sessions.
Narration: MDMA works by boosting serotonin levels in the brain.
Dr Julie Holland: Most antidepressants increase serotonin levels, they help you feel happy and relaxed. MDMA is sort of like an immediate acting antidepressant and an anti anxiety medicine.
Narration: But since 1985 the Drug Enforcement Agency has prevented psychiatrists giving MDMA to patients.
Dr Julie Holland: The DEA decided that the drug needed to be made illegal because it was being abused and all these psychiatrists and therapists started coming out of the woodwork saying excuse me I was actually working with this drug, I was using it and my patients and I was having some good effects and if you make this illegal I’ll have to stop what I’m doing and can’t we at least research this.
Narration: Julie’s written a book on ecstasy and is campaigning to have the law changed, so it can at least be evaluated as a therapy.
NARRATION: I went to Washington to see if we could find someone to respond to the scientists’ comments. We went to the DEA the Drug Enforcement Administration; we went to NIDA The National Institute On Drug Addiction. Neither would comment. Indeed the DEA just referred us to NIDA and NIDA just referred us back to the DEA.
Narration: In fact we had trouble finding anyone who would comment.
Dr Julie Holland: I would say that the DEA and NIDA are definitely holding back scientific research. In America there is a real, I don’t know ethos that you know potent psychoactive drugs simply need to be made illegal and that’s the end of it and they’re not adequately studied. They’re not adequately studied to look at both risks and benefits.
Narration: Meanwhile, Sasha’s been having some success in his search for new mind-altering substances. Mescaline is the well-known active ingredient in cactus; he thinks he’s found another; methyl mescaline.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: It’s been synthesised many years ago, but it’s never been tried by man. I know no medical or experimental testing with it. It’s a simple compound to make. So I’m going to make the compound and see if it’s active.
Narration: Sahsa will see if it’s active by testing it on himself. He keeps meticulous notes, and scores every drug he tries on a scale of one to three. A Plus One means very little effect. A Plus Two is when definite visual effects kick in.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: At the one hour point definitely things were moving around a little bit rather interesting in fact colours were enhanced to some extent.
Narration: Plus 3 is when the full hallucinations begin.
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: Oh my god plus 3. Don’t drive a car. Don’t leave. Be sure you have a babysitter because you can’t go beyond that that means you are a mess you are investing the day in that experiment.
Narration: Whether any of Sasha’s hallucinogenic drug discoveries will help people, remains to be seen. But if you believe the campaigners Sasha’s most famous drug, MDMA, holds definite promise.
Dr Julie Holland: We don’t have anything like this in psychiatry where you can give something to help the therapy go better, faster, quicker, be more efficient. If nothing else you’d think that the insurance companies would be interested in this because it’s certainly cost effective. People could be getting better a lot quicker.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s953876.htm
Marijuana - a potential new anticancer strategy
Endogenous cannabinoids seen as potential colorectal tumor inhibitors
Reuters Health
Posting Date: September 29, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Endogenous cannabinoids inhibit colorectal carcinoma proliferation, new research suggests. Activating or curbing the inactivation of the endocannabinoid system might represent a potential new anticancer strategy, the authors say.
"Endocannabinoids, the endogenous ligands for the receptors of marijuana's psychoactive principle THC, seemingly play an important regulatory role under pathological conditions," Dr. Vincenzo Di Marzo from the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, C.N.R., in Pozzuoli, Italy, told Reuters Health.
The endocannabinoids, anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), and their receptors have previously been shown to inhibit the proliferation of breast and prostate cancer cells and rat thyroid cancer cells.
Dr. Di Marzo and colleagues determined levels of anandamide and 2-AG, the cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which catalyzes endocannabinoid hydrolysis, in colorectal carcinoma, adenomatous polyps, and healthy surrounding mucosa obtained from 21 patients by biopsy during colonoscopy.
All samples contained anandamide, 2-AG, cannabinoid receptors, and FAAH, they report.
Of note, the levels of 2-AG and anandamide, but not CB1, CB2, or FAAH, were significantly elevated in cancerous and, particularly, precancerous colonic tissue relative to neighboring healthy mucosa.
"Endocannabinoids are enhanced in transformed colon mucosa cells possibly to counteract proliferation via cannabinoid receptors," the team suggests in the September issue of the journal Gastroenterology.
"Levels of both anandamide and 2-AG increase dramatically when passing from normal mucosa to adenomatous polyps and then slightly decrease in CRC tissue," they further explain.
To see whether the endocannabinoid system affects colorectal carcinoma growth, they tested the effects of cannabinoids on undifferentiated and differentiated cultured CaCo-2 cells, which are widely used in colorectal cancer research.
Anandamide and 2-AG as well as selective CB1 receptor agonists "potently" inhibited the growth of undifferentiated CaCo-2 cells in a dose-dependent fashion but had little antiproliferative effect in differentiated CaCo-2 cells.
Pharmacologic inhibition of endocannabinoid inactivation also reduced proliferation of undifferentiated CaCo-2 cells and raised endocannabinoid levels.
These findings, Dr. Di Marzo said, open up the possibility of using inhibitors of endocannabinoid degradation to block certain types of cancer. His team already has some "promising evidence" for this strategy in an animal model of thyroid carcinoma.
"However, still a lot is to be done at the pre-clinical level before it is possible to suggest the use of agents that activate cannabinoid receptors directly (such as THC), or indirectly (such as these inhibitors of endocannabinoid degradation), in the clinic," he emphasized.
Dr. Steven R. Vigna of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, writes in an editorial that as "putative inhibitors" of colorectal carcinoma, the potential therapeutic value of the gut endocannabinoid system "appears to be substantial."
Two men busted for importing steroids
NEW TYPE OF CRIME CARRIES STIFF PENALTY; BOTH PLEAD NOT GUILTY
By LOUISE TAYLOR
Two Lexington men, one a medical salesman and the other a University of Kentucky senior, have been charged with trafficking in muscle-building steroids in an operation that search warrants claim reached across the United States.
Until 1991, the sale of anabolic steroids wasn't criminal, but these days the pair could land in prison for five years and face a $250,000 fine if convicted. And they are facing charges that state and federal prosecutors are pressing more and more frequently across the United States amid growing criticism of professional athletes who use performance-enhancing hormones.
Last month in San Francisco, a higher-profile case grabbed the headlines when baseball great Barry Bonds' personal trainer, a famous track coach and two executives of a nutrition company were indicted on similar trafficking charges.
Arrested in Lexington were: David Connerth, 24, a representative of Plus Orthopedics, a company that sells prosthetic hips and knees; and Mark Pirschel, also 24, a UK senior who studies engineering and roomed with Connerth and a third man, who has not been arrested.
Both Connerth and Pirschel have pleaded not guilty; Connerth's case is awaiting action by the Fayette grand jury and Pirschel is due in court this week for a preliminary hearing.
Search warrants say Connerth used a false company name, Computer Innovations, as a front for the illicit steroid business, which used Mailbox Express in the Brighton Place Shoppes as its address.
At Connerth's home, police found more than 5,000 pills "believed to be steroids," more than 30 vials of liquid steroids, an unspecified amount of cash, banking records, three guns and other items, according to inventories of property seized during a search.
Caller tipped off police
None of the steroid buyers named in the search warrants was a well-known athlete. Steroids are used by an estimated three million Americans, including amateur bodybuilders and those who simply want to look buff.
Connerth's attorney, Burl McCoy, said that his client, a native of Western Kentucky who graduated from Transylvania University in 2000, is maintaining his innocence. McCoy said he suspects the case will be turned over to federal prosecutors.
"There's not much I can tell you about the case," McCoy said. "But he seems like a bright young man, and he looks forward to moving on with this case and with his life."
Lee Rowland, who represents Pirschel, said he has seen no evidence that his client is guilty of any crime at all. Pir-schel was merely Connerth's roommate, he said.
Pirschel is charged with trafficking and possession of ster-oids, but is mentioned only once in the search warrants filed in the case: He was with Connerth in a Toyota Land Cruiser and went with him to the Blue Moon, a nightclub in Chevy Chase.
The Lexington police first got wind of the alleged steroid-selling scheme in August, when an anonymous caller said Connerth was selling steroids from his home at 1037 Kavenaugh, according to search warrants sworn out by detective C.D. Schnelle.
Over the next six months, the caller left four more tips, including information that Connerth dealt the steroids over the Internet, worked out at Gold's Gym, rented a storage unit, had a girlfriend named Tiffany in Alabama, and used FedEx to send money to Birmingham.
U.S. postal inspectors in St. Louis and Mississippi were picking up the steroid scent, too. First, on Jan. 24, inspectors intercepted a package postmarked Lexington that had been sent to Mississippi; when they searched it, they found steroids. The addressee, Gary Ward, told them he had ordered the hormone over the Internet from a person he knew only as "Roidraid," a search warrant says.
In St. Louis, the postal inspectors noticed a suspicious pattern in Express Mail deliveries to Tracy Koewing in New Haven, Mo. When confronted Feb. 20, Koewing told inspectors that she had been recruited by Connerth to receive and send steroids and money.
Late that night -- at 11:15 -- the Lexington police got a warrant to search Connerth's house, where they found a stash of what they think are illegal steroids.
Steroid hysteria cited
Richard D. Collins, a New York lawyer who specializes in steroid defense, wrote in a professional journal that seizures of steroids are often large because of the way they are used -- in cycles. Police often misidentify them, too, he wrote in a 2002 article for The Champion, the magazine published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Collins, who was out of his office last week, wrote that steroids are unfairly considered a Schedule III drug alongside methamphetamine, barbiturates and other potent drugs -- all thanks to anti-steroid propaganda erupting from "cheating" scandals in professional sports.
The steroid hysteria, Collins said, has prompted some judges and juries "to view anabolic steroids as an even greater social menace than narcotics." Collins wrote that steroids are fairly harmless when used properly: "Many more people have died or been permanently injured from botched liposuctions and other cosmetic surgery procedures in the past few years than in over 40 years of non-medical anabolic steroid use."
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/8135239.htm
Chemical precursors and clandestine drug manufacturing.
Quote D.E.A.
The United States has adopted various legislative measures dealing with the problem of chemical diversion, fulfilling its obligations under the Vienna Convention. The Canadian Government, led by Health Canada, is drafting a regulatory framework and administrative system to control and monitor precursors and other chemicals frequently used in the clandestine production of controlled substances. The regulations, which will satisfy Canada's international obligations/commitments and domestic requirements, are expected to come into force in 2002. The RCMP National Chemical Precursor Diversion Program has had success with voluntary reporting and cooperation from the domestic chemical industry, however, legal controls are required to enable law enforcement to effectively investigate chemical diversion and clandestine laboratory activities in Canada. Notwithstanding the absence of legal controls, Canadian law enforcement have continually responded to DEA investigative requests concerning chemical diversion.
Without regulatory chemical controls in Canada, drug traffickers have been able to legitimately purchase chemical products from licensed distributors. U.S.-based traffickers have taken great advantage of absent regulations and have crossed the border to obtain chemicals from Canadian suppliers. Chemical company distributors are not the sole sources for precursor and other chemicals used to synthesize illicit drugs. In both Canada and the United States, many of these products are readily available from aroma therapy companies, pharmacies, grocery, convenience and home improvement stores and other retailers where they are sold for a multitude of legitimate uses.
In the United States, chemical control measures strive to reach a balance between legitimate trade and law enforcement. U.S. chemical control requirements include the registration of List I chemical companies. Companies which handle above-threshold quantities of any Listed Chemicals are required to maintain transaction records for two years and must report suspicious transactions to the DEA. DEA monitors the import and export of Listed Chemicals and engages in the "Letter of No Objection" Program. In addition, the United States participates in multilateral chemical reporting and bilateral agreements with a number of countries through its chemical control program.
There are no legal controls to assist Canadian law enforcement agencies in the investigation of chemical diversion cases. In the absence of regulations, the RCMP instituted in 1995 the Chemical Diversion Reporting Program in an effort to liaise with, and educate, chemical industry representatives regarding suspicious transactions of chemicals and equipment which have possible application to clandestine drug manufacture. Overall, voluntary reporting and cooperation have been positive, although resources and the absence of legal measures have greatly limited investigative capabilities. Notwithstanding, Canadian law enforcement have continually responded to DEA investigative requests concerning chemical diversion. Private industry is willing to assist the police, but it is reluctant to become heavily involved in the absence of a legal structure or a code of conduct. In March 2000, the Federal Government approved funding for Health Canada to develop regulations and to establish a monitoring unit. The RCMP also received funding to set up five full-time positions to monitor suspicious chemical transactions. In addition to a national coordinator position at RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa, four positions are located in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.
As part of the recently established RCMP National Precursor Chemical Diversion Program, investigators will work closely with other RCMP personnel; domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies; Federal Government Departments such as Health Canada, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency; and private industry to create a comprehensive national program that will focus on chemical diversion and clandestine laboratory investigations. DFAIT is responsible for issuing individual and general export permits under the Export Import Permits Act. In 1992, chemicals listed in Tables I and II of the 1988 Convention were, as an interim measure, placed on Group 8 of the Export Control List, according to categories determined by the CATF. Quantities in excess of chemical thresholds require individual permits to all non-U.S. destinations. Ephedrine and PSE require individual permits for all destinations. Other exports over indicated thresholds require a general export permit.(1) In reality, less than one dozen export permits have been issued since 1992. This further indicates the weak monitoring and control of chemical exports from Canada.
Press release: 18 November 2004: UNODC Reports Major Increase in Opium Cultivation in Afghanistan
United Nations Drugs Office Reports Major Increase in Opium Cultivation in Afghanistan
VIENNA, 18 November (UN Information Service) -- This year, opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 64 per cent compared to 2003, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004, released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“In Afghanistan, drugs are now a clear and present danger,” stated Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC.
Announcing the Survey findings during a press briefing in Brussels, Mr. Costa added, “With 131,000 hectares dedicated to opium farming, this year Afghanistan has established a double record -- the highest drug cultivation in the country’s history, and the largest in the world.”
At the same time, bad weather and disease lowered the 2004 opium yield per hectare by almost 30 per cent, resulting in a total output (4,200 tons) that exceeds last year’s by 17 per cent. According to the 2004 UNODC Survey, “nature-related productivity decline capped Afghanistan’s 2004 opium production at an amount still lower than the Taliban’s 1999 peak of 4,600 tons. ”
“Afghan annals will record 2004 as contradictory. Political progress towards democracy culminated in the near plebiscite election of President Karzai. For this splendid accomplishment we all salute President Karzai’s courage and determination. Yet, opium cultivation, which has spread like wildfire throughout the country, could ultimately incinerate everything -- democracy, reconstruction and stability,” noted Mr. Costa in the Survey’s preface.
Bill Rammell, United Kingdom, Minister Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, also participated in the press briefing.
“As today’s UN Survey makes clear, the challenge is substantial and complex -- but we and the Afghans are in this for the long haul. We will be working with the Afghan government and all their international partners to ensure increased activity and delivery over the next 12 months.”
According to the UN report, “opium cultivation has spread to all of Afghanistan’s 32 provinces, making narcotics the main engine of economic growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples. Valued at US$2.8 billion, the opium economy is now equivalent to over 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s 2003 GDP.”
Mr. Costa elaborated on those statistics, saying “The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality as corruption in the public sector, the die-hard ambition of local warlords, and the complicity of local investors are becoming a factor in Afghan life.”
The UNODC Director indicated there was also reason to be encouraged: “The building blocks to tackle opium cultivation and production have been developed, and important positive signs are emerging.”
The UNODC Director has asked the Afghan government to pursue four goals in 2005:
(i) a significant eradication campaign;
(ii) prosecution of major drug trafficking cases;
(iii) measurable actions against corruption in government;
(iv) a reinforced counter-narcotics structure.
Because of the strong links between drugs and terrorism, Mr. Costa called on the international community, funding partners, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Enduring Freedom Coalition forces to engage in commensurate initiatives to support the Afghan government’s counter-narcotic drive. These include:
(i) measures to alleviate poverty in the countryside;
(ii) military operations against labs and traffickers’ convoys;
(iii) support to fight corruption within the army, the police, the provincial administrations and the judiciary;
(iv) enhanced assistance for the improvement of the judicial system.
“Afghanistan’s 10 year counter-narcotics strategy, based on improved living conditions for farmers, determined law enforcement against traffickers, and strong demand reduction, remains valid,” said Mr. Costa.
He continued, “And drug developments in Afghanistan contradict trends in the rest of the world. Drug production is decreasing on every continent. Cocaine production in the Andean region has decreased by 30 per cent in the last three years. In South-East Asia, opium production has diminished by 75 per cent and the Golden Triangle -- which still evokes tragic memories of drug addiction and death -- may soon be declared drug free. Morocco is also reducing the cultivation of cannabis.
“In counter-narcotics, there is no silver bullet. The opium economy in Afghanistan has to be dismantled with democracy, the rule of law and economic improvement -- it will be a long and difficult process. It cannot be done ruthlessly as it was done by the Taliban, nor with mindless disregard for the country’s poverty. It would be a historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we reclaimed it from the Taliban and Al Qaeda,” concluded UNODC’s Executive Director.
Many exporting countries require a permit from the importing country to verify that the company importing the chemical is conducting a legitimate transaction. In Canada, there are no regulations governing the issue of an import permit. In lieu of this, Health Canada issues a "Letter of No Objection" to the Canadian importer, who, in turn, sends the letter to the foreign supplier with a purchase order. Health Canada issued 116 letters for precursor chemicals in 2000 and 84 as of July 2001. There is no legal basis for this process; it is a courtesy to the industry, enabling the orderly importation of Table I substances. Health Canada also uses this process as a tracking mechanism to gather data on imports of these substances into Canada. Through this program, between 90 percent and 95 percent of the precursors entering Canada is traceable.
Bronx Street Gang Indicted on Terror Charges
Friday, May 14, 2004
NEW YORK Nineteen members of a street gang accused of menacing their neighborhood have been indicted on murder and other charges as acts of terror, believed to be the first use of the state's anti-terrorism law against a gang.
Five of the 19 gang members indicted by a grand jury were arrested Thursday, police said. The other 14 were still being sought.
Charging that the St. James Gang (search) acted with "the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population," Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said the grand jury was justified in adding the terrorism stipulation to several counts including conspiracy, murder and gang assault.
Johnson said it was the first time he was aware of that the terrorism statute had been used in such a way. The law, passed by the state Legislature six days after the Sept. 11 attack, allows for more severe sentences.
Edgar Morales, 22, who was arrested Thursday, faces the most serious charge, second-degree murder as a terrorist act, for the shooting death of a 10-year-old girl in August 2002 at a baptism party.
Prosecutors allege 12 members of the gang crashed the party and confronted a man they believed was a member of a rival gang. The gang members chased the man outside and started shooting, hitting the girl with a stray bullet, prosecutors said.
If convicted on that charge, Morales, who also faces several other charges, would face a mandatory life sentence without parole. The charge without the terrorism stipulation would carry a sentence of 25 years to life.
The four other men arrested Thursday were charged with conspiracy and could face as much as 25 years in prison if convicted.
heres the link.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C119968%2C00.html