AUTHORITIES FROM Michigan, New Jersey and South Carolina, along with agents from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), raided the house of Jeffrey Suggs, 33, and Kenneth Suggs, 29, on Thursday, seizing more than 100 pounds of drugs used to make gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, a notorious date-rape drug. Police also seized a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a pair of shotguns.
The Suggs are awaiting extradition to New Jersey, where they face charges of conspiring to possess and manufacture GHB. If convicted, they each face five to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.
The Suggs sold kits to make GHB from their Web site,
ComputerKit.com, according to the sheriff’s office in Wayne County, Mich., which allegedly purchased drugs from them in a sting operation. In large quantities GHB causes unconsciousness and memory loss, making it easier to sexually assault an unsuspecting victim. GHB has caused more than 30 deaths since 1994, including the March 1999 death of a 15-year-old Wayne County girl, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The FDA banned GHB in 1990, but two chemicals used to make the drug, sodium hydroxide and gamma butrylactone, or GBL, remain legal. The Suggs advertised these substances on their Web sites as “circuit board cleaner,” stating, “Our products are only of the highest quality at the best possible prices.”
“You have to get smarter as you go along with the investigation because it’s a whole new area out there with computers,” said Chuck Davis, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. “To the average person, it looks like a legitimate site, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can spot it.”
DEPUTIES BOUGHT KITS
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office found the site after a routine sweep of the Internet with a search engine. Cybercrime cops from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office bought the GHB kits from
ComputerKit.com after eavesdropping on Internet chat rooms discussing the drug.
“This Web site kept coming up,” Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano said, “so the officers applied for it.”
The Wayne County deputies bought three $55 kits in September, October and earlier this month, police said. When the investigators wrote to the site asking what they were supposed to do with the
chemicals, they got back a five-page instruction sheet telling them how to mix GHB.
Just one teaspoon of GHB is enough to knock someone out. Each batch created 15 to 20 teaspoon-sized doses, Ficano said.
“Somebody that takes cocaine or heroin consciously knows they’re taking it and will measure the consequences,” Ficano said. “But GHB and other date-rape drugs are given to unknowing victims by unscrupulous people.”
During their raid, police carted away a 55-gallon drum of GBL and 10 pounds of sodium hydroxide.
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"Take care, brush yer hair
"
The Suggs are awaiting extradition to New Jersey, where they face charges of conspiring to possess and manufacture GHB. If convicted, they each face five to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.
The Suggs sold kits to make GHB from their Web site,
ComputerKit.com, according to the sheriff’s office in Wayne County, Mich., which allegedly purchased drugs from them in a sting operation. In large quantities GHB causes unconsciousness and memory loss, making it easier to sexually assault an unsuspecting victim. GHB has caused more than 30 deaths since 1994, including the March 1999 death of a 15-year-old Wayne County girl, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The FDA banned GHB in 1990, but two chemicals used to make the drug, sodium hydroxide and gamma butrylactone, or GBL, remain legal. The Suggs advertised these substances on their Web sites as “circuit board cleaner,” stating, “Our products are only of the highest quality at the best possible prices.”
“You have to get smarter as you go along with the investigation because it’s a whole new area out there with computers,” said Chuck Davis, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. “To the average person, it looks like a legitimate site, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can spot it.”
DEPUTIES BOUGHT KITS
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office found the site after a routine sweep of the Internet with a search engine. Cybercrime cops from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office bought the GHB kits from
ComputerKit.com after eavesdropping on Internet chat rooms discussing the drug.
“This Web site kept coming up,” Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano said, “so the officers applied for it.”
The Wayne County deputies bought three $55 kits in September, October and earlier this month, police said. When the investigators wrote to the site asking what they were supposed to do with the
chemicals, they got back a five-page instruction sheet telling them how to mix GHB.
Just one teaspoon of GHB is enough to knock someone out. Each batch created 15 to 20 teaspoon-sized doses, Ficano said.
“Somebody that takes cocaine or heroin consciously knows they’re taking it and will measure the consequences,” Ficano said. “But GHB and other date-rape drugs are given to unknowing victims by unscrupulous people.”
During their raid, police carted away a 55-gallon drum of GBL and 10 pounds of sodium hydroxide.
------------------
"Take care, brush yer hair
"
