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Support Us URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n577/a04.html

Newshawk: John Smith

Votes: 0

Pubdate: Sun, 01 Apr 2001

Source: Herald, The (WA)

Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.

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Website: http://www.heraldnet.com/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190

Author: Scripps-McClatchy Western Sevice



POLICE HIT A MOTHER LODE IN DRUG BUST



Expecting Marijuana Plants, Agents Also Discover Largest Illegal Cache Of Synthetic Heroin Ever Found.



BIG BEAR, Calif. — When detectives broke through the cabin door in Big Bear City, they expected to find marijuana plants. They did not expect Jason Williamson.



Combining knowledge from a couple of college chemistry courses with information from the Internet, Williamson apparently figured out how to manufacture a synthetic heroin so powerful that just touching a pure form of the drug can kill, police say



The lab and the allegations against Williamson are anomalies in a world where cartels and kingpins dominate narcotics trafficking.



Williamson, 32, does not appear to be involved with any organized distribution ring and has only one misdemeanor conviction, police say And it is possible he managed to produce a fortune in drugs the first time he set up a lab, San Bernardino County sheriff's detective Mike Wirz said.



Detectives who raided the cabin Dec. 4 seized fentanyl with a wholesale value of $4 million to $5 million, enough of the drug to get 3 million addicts high. It was the largest seizure of illicit fentanyl ever in the United States, police said.



"It's such a fluke. There are seizures of an ounce here and an ounce there, which were thought to be huge," Wirz said.



Williamson pleaded innocent to federal charges of manufacturing fentanyl and possession with intent to distribute the drug. He is scheduled for trial next month in U.S. District Court in Riverside. If convicted, he could face more than 20 years in prison.



The lab was so unusual, in part, because illicit fentanyl is so rare. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials say they have documented only three fentanyl labs in the United States in the past 25 years.



The drug is incredibly potent. Where a methamphetamine user might get five or 10 hits from a gram of high-quality speed, 1 gram of pure fentanyl can be enough for 5,000 doses of the drug, experts say



"If you just have an extra microgram or two, that could be above the lethal range," said Tom Abercrombie, assistant laboratory director at the California Department of Justice's DNA lab in Berkeley



Manufacturing fentanyl is more complicated than synthesizing some other drugs. The chemicals include solvents such as acetone and more exotic substances that initiate or halt reactions used in making plastics, Abercrombie said. Some can cause cancer or damage the nervous system.



Created as a synthetic narcotic for surgical procedures, fentanyl can be used as a painkiller or an anesthetic. Like heroin, it produces euphoria. Potency among the dozen or so forms of fentanyl can range from 50 to several thousand times greater than heroin. Most often, abusers are medical professionals with access to pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl.



Federal drug agents are trying to link a number of nonfatal overdoses in Arkansas to the drug that Williamson is accused of manufacturing, Wirz said.



"How many other states got deliveries, I don't know," he said.



Detectives went to Big Bear City after a source had tipped them that someone was growing marijuana in the cabin. Police with a search warrant knocked on the door, and when no one answered, they broke in, Wirz said.



Inside, police recovered 86 marijuana plants, most less than a foot tall. Detectives also found what they thought was a methamphetamine lab.



But as Wirz and another agent popped open a small document safe, an officer approached with a piece of paper found in another room. Information taken from the Internet described the chemicals and procedures used to make fentanyl. The safe contained 8.8 pounds of diluted fentanyl powder in plastic bags.



Wirz recalled his training classes. Instructors said agents probably would never see a fentanyl lab. But if they did, Wirz said, "they told us that it was the most deadly thing we'll ever come across."



Wirz looked at the fentanyl dust that coated the safe he had just handled. He ordered everyone outside and sealed the house until officials with proper protective gear arrived.



In addition to the fentanyl powder, authorities found 16 ounces of liquid fentanyl in the refrigerator, Wirz said. Illicit fentanyl abuse was more common in the 1980s, when heroin was in short supply said Dr. Gregory Thompson, director of the Los Angeles Regional Drug Information Center at the University of Southern California.



In 1999, there were 337 emergency-room visits related to fentanyl abuse throughout the United States, according to estimates from the Drug Awareness Warning Network The network collects data from 500 hospitals across the country and extrapolates the data nationwide.



In the same year, coroners in about 40 U.S. metropolitan areas attributed 53 deaths to fentanyl abuse. Deaths from heroin and morphine abuse numbered 4,820.



Investigators suspect Williamson used Internet chat rooms to contact people looking to buy the drug. Along with the drug were instructions on how to dilute, or cut, the fentanyl to reduce its purity Wirz said. Analysis showed the powdered fentanyl from the cabin was 7.8 percent pure and the liquid, which had not been cut, was 87 percent pure, Wirz said.



Without sophisticated measuring devices, diluting fentanyl can be a lethal gamble, DEA spokesman Jose Martinez said.



"You're going to be shooting up fluff that's still too powerful, and it's going to kill you," he said.



Police checked chemical-supply houses, which report sales of certain chemicals to the state, and found the record of a one-time purchase by Williamson. It is possible, Wirz said, that Williamson manufactured drugs worth millions of dollars on his first try.

MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart



