wazza
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2001
- Messages
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taken from here
AUTHORITIES claim to have broken up four internet drug trafficking rings operating in the US and Canada, making more than 100 arrests and seizing enough chemicals for 25 million doses of a "date rape" drug.
The two-day sweep in 84 cities was "a dose of harsh reality for drug traffickers who seek to exploit the vast markets and anonymity of cyberspace," Attorney-General John Ashcroft said today.
Federal, state and local police began the investigation, called Operation Webslinger, two years ago.
The internet drug rings were allegedly based in St Louis; Detroit and San Diego; Mobile, Alabama, and Sparta, Tennessee; and Buffalo, New York, and Quebec City.
Relying on websites and personal email accounts to reach out to their customers, the dealers disguised what they were selling by naming their products "Blue Raine" ink jet printing supplies and "TonerCleen cleaning solution," investigators told a news conference at Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
Word of the websites had spread quickly in the past few years, particularly among teenagers and young adults frequenting the club scene. The site locations could even be found scrawled on bathroom walls, investigators said.
Law enforcement agencies and the government have run education campaigns to warn women about sexual predators who could spike their drinks with colorless, odourless drugs, which cause drowsiness, dizziness and loss of inhibition.
"Date-rape" drug GHB and its derivatives, GBL and 1,4 Butanediol or BD, are industrial solvents that have killed 72 drug users, said DEA Director Asa Hutchinson.
Marketing dangerous drugs on the web "should not, and will not, be as simple as point and click," said Hutchinson, who noted the components of GHB are used in floor stripping fluid.
Investigators seized over $US1 million ($1.83 million) in cash and property from the four alleged drug rings, and 3000 gallons of GHB and the other two substances.
Daniel Pelchat, of St Etienne, Quebec, described by Assistant US Attorney James Kennedy in Buffalo as one of the biggest providers of GHB in the world, was indicted for unlawful use of the internet and importation of GBL and BD.
Authorities claimed 1452 gallons of the chemicals were seized from his business and residence.
The ring operating in Detroit and San Diego relied on personal email accounts and word of mouth to market its products, officials said. The alleged San Diego connection to the ring, Larry Waychoff, is a fugitive.
The Missouri network, an internet company called Miracle Cleaning Products, sold to customers in 41 states and was allegedly run by a mother-and-son team, Cassandra Harvey, 53, of Festus, Missouri, and Joshua Harvey.
The Harveys are being held ahead of a detention hearing Monday in St Louis.
The US Postal Inspection Service, the Customs Service and the FBI are the other federal agencies participating in the investigation.