The Mega Merged Drug Busts Thread

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Former deputy arrested in meth case

Bill James, who worked for Washington County, faces charges of misconduct and tampering with evidence

Thursday, May 20, 2004
HOLLY DANKS

HILLSBORO -- A former Washington County sheriff's deputy was arrested Wednesday on accusations of stealing methamphetamine he seized as a member of the county's drug team.

Bill James, 38, a deputy for three years, was cited to appear in court June 9 for arraignment on one count of first-degree official misconduct and one count of tampering with evidence.

Both charges are class A misdemeanors punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and one year in jail.

"He's not going to get any kind of offer," said Robert Hull, the senior deputy district attorney on the case. "He's getting the same thing anybody else in this situation would get."

Hull said the case in which the methamphetamine was missing was not being prosecuted for other reasons, so the theft "did not compromise any ongoing investigation."

Sandy James, sheriff's spokeswoman and no relation, said Bill James asked to meet with Sheriff Rob Gordon on April 22 and told his boss that he had taken a small amount of meth for his personal use. He said "he had violated the trust of the sheriff's office" and admitted to having a drug problem, Sandy James said.

After the meeting, Bill James resigned and checked into an in-patient drug treatment program, where he remains today, Hull said.

"During his interviews with the sheriff and detectives, he was very remorseful," Hull said. "He probably would not have been caught if he had not turned himself in."

Hull said Bill James took about one-sixteenth of an ounce of meth, enough for one or two uses and valued at between $20 and $40.

The sheriff's office hired Bill James in 2001 and assigned him to the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team in May 2003. Hull said Bill James admits he had some drug and alcohol problems before he was hired, but was discreet about his use.

"He was not addicted," Hull said. "If he needed it on a daily basis, he would not be sleeping, not be eating; he would be fidgety. Somebody would have noticed and no one did. He brought this whole thing up himself."

When Gordon heard Bill James's story, he notified the district attorney's office and asked that an outside agency look into it. Members of the Regional Organized Crime Network conducted an investigation.




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Reminds me of the cops in spun.

I love how this guy just has a 'drug problem' he's getting 'treatment' for, rather than being portrayed as some savage junkie who must be addicted and stealing infants for organ harvesting to feed their habit.

And I don't know much about meth, but from what I've read those prices aren't right. That must be the police special.
 
6,000 pounds of pot seized

OTAY MESA – A drug-sniffing dog led to the discovery yesterday of three tons of marijuana in a tractor trailer loaded with patio chairs at the Otay Mesa border crossing, authorities said.

"Anytime you get 6,000 pounds of pot off the street, that's a great day," said Vincent Bond, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.

After the dog alerted officers to the possible presence of drugs, agents found more than 500 packages of pot in a secret compartment inside the 48-foot-long trailer, authorities said.

The drug's value was estimated at $3 million. The driver, a 30-year-old Tijuana resident, was booked into the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.

Otay Mesa border inspectors have seized almost 36,000 pounds of marijuana since October, when the latest federal fiscal year began, Bond said. Almost 100,000 pounds were seized last year.

– Onell R. Soto
source
Click to expand...

that's a lot of pot 8o probably dirt weed though.
 
"Anytime you get 6,000 pounds of pot off the street, that's a great day," said Vincent Bond, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.
Click to expand...

a great day, hardly :P prolly shitty bud as everyone else said :)
 
yeah, prob. that dirty ass stink bud. but still buds bud, and that was bud, and they should give it to me...ill find something to do with all of it....
 
Agreed

Alot of hash could have been made from all of that bricked weed...
 
Man arrested after allegedly trading drugs for sex with students

TX - A 41-year-old information technology manager is the center of a nine-month police investigation after more than a dozen allegations surfaced claiming he filmed at least three McKinney high school students engaged in sexual acts in exchange for drugs, alcohol and money.

Richard Dean Campbell, of McKinney, faces charges of sexually assaulting a child and seven counts of furnishing minors with alcohol. However, the scope of the investigation may widen to include additional suspects and charges, officials said Tuesday.

"We're still collecting evidence the items that we seized," McKinney police Capt. Robert Dean said. "We haven't ruled out the possibility of others, but I can't elaborate on that anymore."

Police arrested Campbell for the sexual assault charge on April 20 when he was released on $25,000 bond. On Thursday, he was arrested and released again from the Collin County Detention Center on $2,500 bond for each of the seven counts of providing alcohol to minors.

Fourteen students from McKinney North and McKinney High School gave statements to investigators detailing parties with open drug and alcohol use at Campell's two-story house at xxxxxxx in between August and November 2002.

here
 
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City official busted for making meth

ESCONDIDO – The chairman of Escondido's Planning Commission was jailed yesterday on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine and seven other counts, stunning city officials who had nothing but praise for the civic leader.

Bruce M. Quick came under suspicion after officers contacted him near a drug lab in February, police said. He was arrested Tuesday after a traffic stop in the city's industrial area, a few blocks from the offices of his landscaping company.

Police suspected Quick was under the influence of a controlled substance and searched his car. They found numerous bogus identification cards and checks and stolen credit cards, Escondido police said.

A search early yesterday of Quick's office in Patton Industrial Park on Industrial Avenue yielded boxes containing ingredients and equipment to manufacture methamphetamine, police said. Also found during the search were computers and a printer, stolen credit cards, fraudulent checks and a gun, Escondido police Sgt. Robert Healey said.

Quick was jailed on eight felony counts; bail was set at $281,000. He was scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Planning Commission member Barry Newman said. "What a surprise. I guess it just goes to show that when you think you know someone, you really don't."

Yesterday, a red flier posted on the office door by the Drug Enforcement Administration cautioned that a "clandestine laboratory for the manufacture of illegal drugs and/or hazardous chemicals was seized at this location."

The flier was the only indication that the unit had been inhabited. There was no business sign on the door and window shades were drawn.

Nearby business owners said they were surprised to learn of Quick's arrest, though two men said Quick kept odd hours, arriving as most of the businesses in Patton Industrial Park were closing and emerging from the office when others arrived for work.

A woman at Quick's home on Bahia Lane declined to comment and refused to give her name.

Yesterday's find was not the first time authorities have uncovered suspected drug labs at the Patton Industrial Park. In 2001 authorities found a lab capable of producing 1.5 million Ecstasy tablets a month.

Quick, who lost bids for the City Council in 2000 and the school board in 1998, was named to the Planning Commission in 1999. The council reappointed him last year.

Charles Grimm, city community development director who heads Escondido's Planning Department, said, "Oh, boy. This is a real surprise.

"He does a good job on the commission," Grimm said. "He's involved, and he does his homework."

Planning commissioners serve two-year terms. Grimm said the council has the power to replace Quick.

Escondido Councilman Ed Gallo, who has served on the Planning Commission with Quick for two years, said he was stunned to learn of the arrest.

"It just blew me away," he said. "He had his own business. He worked hard. He studied everything (going before the commission). That's why this is kind of hard for me to believe, actually. For me, the two just don't go together. To me, it was kind of a stretch, but hey, facts are facts."

By Brian Hazle, John Berhman and Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
May 27, 2004
source
 
"It just blew me away," he said. "He had his own business. He worked hard. He studied everything (going before the commission). That's why this is kind of hard for me to believe, actually. For me, the two just don't go together.."

Does this guy not realize his friend was making meth? :D

"Oh, sweet Jesus" =D too funny.
 
He sounded like really busy man. I doubt he would have been that productive had he not been twacked out on meth all the time.
 
They all had bullshit, lame responses. There so, overused and typical pre-formated saying.

i say there all in on it lol
 
A search early yesterday of Quick's office in Patton Industrial Park on Industrial Avenue yielded boxes containing ingredients and equipment to manufacture methamphetamine, police said. Also found during the search were computers and a printer, stolen credit cards, fraudulent checks and a gun, Escondido police Sgt. Robert Healey said.
Click to expand...
This guy appearently thought he had to follow a laundry list from from a bunko report to make meth.

"OK, hummm, let's see now...

equipment? CHECK
stolen credit cards? CHECK
fraudulent checks? CHECK
gun? CHECK

OK, now I can start making meth."

:D
 
Frenches Plead Guilty to Federal Drug Charges

Frenches Plead Guilty To Federal Drug Charges
By Ron Wood, The Morning News (AK)
Saturday, May 29, 2004

FAYETTEVILLE -- Two Lincoln men pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to trying to buy a large amount of pseudoephredrine, which is used to make methamphetamine, from undercover drug agents.

Teddy French, 42, and Chris French, 21, changed their initial pleas to guilty in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren.

Sentencing is pending the completion of a report to determine any relevent facts. It also includes formal sentencing recommendations. That should take about 45 days. Both men face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to federal sentencing guidelines. Parole is not an option in federal sentencing.

The Frenches, along with Clifford Johnson, 39, of Stillwell, Okla., were arrested at a Fayetteville motel last November after allegedly paying undercover drug agents more than $106,000 for 30 cases of pseudoephedrine.

All three were all charged with conspiracy to possess pseudoephedrine.

Johnson has already pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Federal prosecutors began civil forfeiture proceedings in February in an effort to take French's home and business.

The Frenches were not chaged in federal court in connection with fleeing or a methamphetamine lab discovered by police during a search of their property.

The two Frenches ran from the law last Dec. 10, after drug agents served a search warrant at their place of business, French's Heating and Air, near Lincoln. Both were free on $100,000 bond at the time and awaiting trial on the pseudoephedrine charges. A methamphetamine lab was confiscated in the raid. They were to turn themselves in the following day but did not.

Federal Marshals tracked the men using telephone and computer records and the help of the State Department, Diplomatic Security Agents and the DEA, across the northwestern United States, Canada and then through Mexico by car to Belize and finally by boat to Honduras where they managed to obtain false names with supporting documentation and secured a place to live.

DEA agents in Honduras then located the Frenches with the help of Honduran police. At the time of their arrest, the Frenches had false Honduran driver's licenses and passports, an illegal weapon and about $10,000 in U.S. cash.

The men's wives and a young child were with them in Honduras. They have not been charged with any crime.

The Washington County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has not yet determined whether to file state charges in connection with the lab discovered on the Frenches property.

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Sheriff seizes110 plants from medical marijuana group

Sheriff seizes110 plants from medical marijuana group
The Associated Press
5/29/2004

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies seized 110 marijuana plants this week from a greenhouse in Woodburn, despite the growers' objection that the plants were authorized under Oregon's medical marijuana law.

Shawn Flury of Oregon Green Cross said he is certain of his right to grow marijuana, and plans to replant his crop. He said he is collecting plants from other medical marijuana groups around the state and hopes to have plants in the ground as quickly as possible.

He said the group serves about 35 patients who depend on a free ounce of marijuana twice a month to ease their ailments.

However, sheriff's officials say they seized the plants from the group's rented greenhouse on South Elliott Prairie Road because the operation lacked the documentation needed to grow that many plants.

There have been other raids of people suspected of violating the state's medical marijuana law, but this week's raid involved an unusually large number of plants, officials said.

Flury insists he had the documents that show the seized plants were legal. He thinks a paperwork backlog prevented police from verifying the records with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, which registers growers and issues medical marijuana cards to patients.

Oregon's 5-year-old medical marijuana law allows people with "debilitating medical conditions" to grow no more than seven plants at a time with a doctor's endorsement. Only three of the seven can be mature plants.

Cardholders must register the growing site with the state. Cardholders also can designate a caregiver to grow marijuana for them.

The rules allow 30 working days after a grower takes over a cardholder's plants before the state must be notified. So even if there's nothing in the state's files on the day of a police raid, a large collection of plants can turn out to be legal if the paperwork comes in later.

Deputy Angela Brandenburg, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said most of the growing operations her department investigates involve a person growing a crop at home for one or two cardholders. Large growing operations also are less common statewide.

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Clubbers caught with Class A drugs with new Swab Tester

Jun 2 2004

Three clubbers were found carrying Class A drugs in a Redditch nightclub after police deployed new detection equipment for the first time.

West Mercia Constabulary tested 103 revellers at the Time venue with special swabs capable of detecting if a person has been in contact with illegal substances such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.

In total 13 clubbers tested positive, three of whom were found to be in possession of drugs.

Two men were cautioned and a woman was bailed pending further inquiries.

Speaking after the operation on Saturday evening, Constable Doug Turland said: "This was the first operation of its kind in Redditch and following its success, one we will be repeating at other venues in the town.

"This drug analysing equipment has proved a useful tool in detecting the presence of drugs and will send out a clear message that drugs are not welcome in and around the pubs and nightclubs in the Redditch area."

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Pilot gets 15 years on drug charges

Pilot gets 15 years on drug charges
His family and lawyers think the marijuana found on his plane belonged to a passenger, who was arrested but cleared of all charges in the 2001 incident.
By COLLEEN JENKINS, St Petersburg Times Staff Writer
Published June 3, 2004

INVERNESS - Pilot Vernon Williams first caught authorities' attention when the U.S. Air Force spied his plane off course and headed toward the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But it was his cargo that really drew notice: 65 pounds of professionally packed marijuana.

On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Ric A. Howard said, despite Williams' previously clean record, the drugs couldn't go ignored. He sentenced the 55-year-old Melbourne man to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Williams' lawyers already are appealing his April conviction by a Citrus County jury.

Williams' family and lawyers think the drugs belonged to his passenger, Brian Hagen, 26. The two men were flying from Pensacola to Louisiana on Oct. 23, 2001, when they ventured over the Gulf of Mexico in Williams' Piper Arrow.

After the Air Force ordered the plane to land in Crystal River, Williams allowed authorities to search it. They found a loaded .40-caliber handgun in Williams' bag and large shrink-wrapped bags of marijuana in the back of the plane.

Hagen also was arrested but the charges against him were soon dropped, court records show. He has a history of drug arrests, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, and is currently serving a 10-year prison term for an unrelated case.

During the hearing Wednesday, California defense attorney Mark McBride appealed to Howard for a lenient sentence. He noted the only blemish on Williams' record was a 1992 misdemeanor battery charge in St. Lucie, which never was prosecuted.

Howard promised he wouldn't consider that old arrest in his deliberation.

Williams' family and friends, including his mother, ex-wife and former in-laws, traveled from around Florida to vouch for the man they said could be described in one word: honest.

They said Williams had built a pool business from scratch, overseeing 30 to 50 pool projects at a time. When he borrowed money, he paid it back. When he asked for a favor, he always returned the courtesy.

The man they knew was dependable and decent, they said.

"He hates drug dealers," said Diana Williams, his ex-wife. "He always has."

Of greatest concern to those close to Williams is his poor health. They told the judge Williams suffered from severe diabetes, which has weakened his sight and balance.

In jail, McBride said, his blood sugar has fluctuated to the point that it could cause brain damage.

"That's a serious issue," he said.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Buxman reminded the judge that the crime required Williams to spend at least three years in prison.

Howard went further. Williams will serve the mandatory three-year minimum sentence, plus at least 85 percent of the remaining 12 years.

The judge also denied McBride's motion to set a bond, which would have allowed Williams to be released from jail while his attorneys appeal the case.

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Grandfather Arrested after Baby Found with Cocaine in System

Grandfather Arrested after Baby Found with Cocaine in System

6/3/2004
by: Walker Robinson

A grandfather accused in the death of his baby grandson was brought back to South Texas after he is extradited from Houston.

An autopsy found cocaine in that 15-month-old Brandon Robbins' body last December. From the minute paramedics arrived at his New Braunfels home, the baby's death was a mystery. They say there was nothing that they could find that would have been the cause of death.

But court documents obtained only by News 4 WOAI, reveal plenty of things that made police suspicious. A lot drug paraphernalia and prescription drugs were in the house, court documents state.

Traces of cocaine and methodone, a drug commonly used by heroin addicts, was found in little Brandon's system according to court documents.

"Unbelieveable," Lt. Mike Rust of New Braunfels Police said,"I've never heard of such a thing, and it's great cause for concern as to how that baby would have got that in his blood system."

Police say urine and blood samples taken from Gregory Robbins, Brandon's live-in grandfather, turned up the same results.

In these reports, investigators say Robbins told them he became addicted to prescription medication in the Air Force with a back injury, but he denied any drug use during the week little Brandon died.

Detectives say it was not easy getting Brandon's parents to come down to give blood and urine samples. When they did, the baby's mother told police she smoked marijuana two days before brandon died.

His father admitted smoking marijuana also and said he snorted cocaine with his father one time, reports state.

"What we're after is the truth," Rust said. "That's what we're gonna strive for, and hopefully at some point in time we will get the truth."

Detectives say more charges may be pending.

Brandon's mother tells News 4 WOAI they have not spoken with Gregory Robbins since his arrest, and they would also like to know how those drugs got into her son's body.

The robbins just got their 8-year-old daughter back from Child Protective Services after the grandfather was arrested.

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