Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN) Copyright: 2001 The Evansville Courier Contact: http://courier.evansville.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138 Author: Byron Rohrig, Courier & Press staff writer WITNESSES GIVE DETAILS ABOUT DRUG DELIVERIES A confessed "mule" who became a government witness testified Wednesday how a "$400 to $500 a week" methamphetamine habit led him to carry the drug from Texas to Southwestern Indiana. William Buxton told a U.S. District Court jury in Evansville that he was earning $56,000 a year as service manager for a Texas auto dealership. Buxton said he was addicted to "crank" when he made as many as 13 runs to Vincennes, Ind., bringing quantities of methamphetamine from defendant Miguel Angel Quintanilla's home. Quintanilla is the alleged key connection for funneling the drug from Mexico. Quintanilla is one of six defendants facing 20 years to life in prison if convicted in connection with an operation that investigators say was linked to the Mexican mafia. Also on trial are Quintanilla's wife, Denese, Alfredo Ceballos, Leonel Moreno Jr., Alan Martinez-Guzman and Abelardo Lalo-Mendoza. In the third day of testimony of a trial expected to last two weeks, jurors got their first detailed look at inner workings of what the government contends was a meth organization funnelling more than 25 pounds of the drug into Indiana. A pound of the drug distributed on the streets in Indiana brought $30,000, drug investigators say. Quintanilla, federal agents say, bought the meth for $4,000 a pound. Buxton, who entered a plea agreement to a federal charge against him, was followed on the stand by his fiancee, Terri Nichols, who is also an admitted meth addict. Nichols said she was Buxton's companion on one airplane trip and two auto trips to deliver drugs, and also made two trips to Indiana on her own. The trips typically ended at the Vincennes Holiday Inn, according to testimony by Buxton and Nichols. Both said they had handed over from 1 pound to 2 pounds of meth per trip to a man they knew as "Cachetes." In return, both said that at each handoff Cachetes gave them a bag containing what they understood to be between $10,000 and $20,000. They said they would take the money back to Quintanilla at his Dallas home and take their cut, typically $2,000. During testimony, Buxton and Nichols identified Cachetes as defendant Alfredo Ceballos. Buxton testified that his wife, Jennifer, also had accompanied him on drug runs that began in 1999 and ended with Buxton's arrest by Vincennes police in April 2000. That arrest touched off an investigation that resulted in 28 indictments here and in the Dallas area, U.S. prosecutors say. Buxton and Nichols acknowledged carrying on an affair at the time they made the drug runs, though Buxton was still married to Jennifer Buxton. The couple have since divorced, Buxton testified. Buxton, who appeared relaxed during his testimony, was the object of prosecution attempts to bolster his credibility as a witness. He said he typically made the highway trips to Indiana in his mother's Isuzu Trooper. She came to Indiana to post a cash bond for his release from the Knox County Jail. Buxton, who was arrested for meth possession while driving his vehicle, withstood prosecution attempts to challenge his credibility and competence, particularly the accuracy of his memory while under the influence of crank. He said he typically went three to four days without sleep while on the drug, and sometimes was "up" for six or seven days. The drug, he said, kept him alert and made him want to do otherwise unpleasant tasks, "like mowing grass." When U.S. Attorney Brad Blackington questioned Buxton, apparently attempting to counter defense contentions that Buxton didn't know for sure the content of the packages he was delivering, Buxton cracked: "I knew that if I was being paid $2,000 to carry a package that I wasn't carrying bubble gum." Nichols said she once observed Miguel and Denese Quintanilla wrapping methamphetamine, first in green Saran Wrap and then with black tape. Nichols said she transported the package to Indiana. On auto trips, the drug was carried in the dashboard near the steering column of his vehicle, Buxton said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake