Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 Source: Pensacola News Journal (FL) Copyright: 2004 The Pensacola News Journal Contact: http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1675 Author: Amber Bollman, Pensacola News Journal DRUG RING NEWS WEARS IN BEACH COMMUNITY Neighbors, Friends In Case Have Residents Thinking Twice Pensacola Beach is not a place for secrets. It's a community where, at least among the locals, news travels fast and gossip even faster. "If you live here long enough, you practically know what time everybody goes to bed," said April Hargrove, a beach resident for 20 years. "If somebody gets in a fight with their boyfriend, you find out about it. If somebody got drunk on Friday night, you find out about it." It is a community that - in spite of ever-encroaching development - still prides itself on staying connected and involved. Everyone, beach residents have said, is just one or two degrees separated from everyone else - a brother, a neighbor or an old high school buddy. Christy Jones, a longtime bartender at local hangout Bobby D's, calls it "the beach family." It is that almost familial closeness of the "old beach," juxtaposed with the sweeping three-year drug investigation that came to a head in December in a flurry of arrests and allegations of cocaine trafficking, that many beach residents say accounts for their lingering sense of shock. One month after the arrests began, "Operation Sandshaker," as the bust was dubbed by federal authorities, remains the beach's hottest topic of conversation. "Everybody's talking about it everywhere you go," said Hargrove, former editor of The Islander newspaper on Pensacola Beach. Almost daily, residents say, there are new rumors about who has been arrested, who has pointed fingers for authorities, and who is going to be next. "You go out, and people are saying, `Oh, I'm surprised so-and-so didn't get arrested,"' Hargrove said. In the most recent edition of "The Sandspur," an underground beach publication, the mood of the island is described as "generalized fear and mistrust and a sense of betrayal." "Even family dogs are being patted down to see if they're wearing wires," according to the authors. Maggie Von Achen, who has resided at the beach part-time for the past 15 years, said she literally has "shed tears and lost sleep" over the investigation. "It has taken away a sense of trust and made people start wondering about their neighbors and their friends from church," she said. "You realize that this all must have been going on right under your nose and you didn't even realize it." Far-reaching investigation To date, 52 people have been arrested as a result of the drug probe. Eleven suspects whom investigators have deemed most heavily involved with the transport and distribution of cocaine from South Florida have been charged at the federal level. Forty-one others believed to be less involved in the operation face a variety of state cocaine possession and conspiracy charges. "From the way I've heard it, it sounds like a long-standing drug co- op," said Gary E. Smith, president of the Pensacola Beach Residents and Leaseholders Association. Investigators have said a wide network of people - including lawyers, business owners, an artist, a school teacher, a probation officer and two mental health counselors - routinely chipped in money to buy cocaine, usually from beach resident Mitchell "Jackie" Seale, who has been identified as the ringleader. Whether anyone knew it was going on depends largely on the people you ask. "This is a pretty small beach, and there are some people you've always heard rumors about," Hargrove said. "And there are some people that if you've ever seen them, you knew they were on something. "But then there are others that I never would have guessed about. There were names that really shocked me." Although the list of people facing criminal charges for their alleged roles in the cocaine ring includes residents of Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Milton and Pace, authorities say most of the action was centered on Pensacola Beach - specifically, the landmark Sandshaker Lounge and Package Store. Five of the 11 properties searched by drug agents on federal warrants are on the beach, and the lengthy affidavit prepared by investigators after months of video surveillance and intercepted phone calls details drug activity all over the beach. Large amounts of cocaine were observed being purchased and packaged inside Seale's home on Panferio Drive, a mismatched street where unkempt block houses and dingy cars sit alongside perfectly landscaped lawns and $30,000 sport utility vehicles. Eight of the people charged in connection with the investigation reside on Panferio, including Sandshaker owner Linda Murphy and her husband, Robert. Less than a mile away from their home sits the elementary school, which the Murphys' daughter attends, and the Pensacola Beach Community Church, where family members have been included in prayers since they were taken into custody. "It's an unfortunate situation," said Jeff Wheelock, a Pensacola Beach artist and longtime resident. "I know a lot of these people, and I like a lot of these people. "I've rubbed elbows with them for years, but I never really became a part of that scene. I Under their noses In a beach town dominated by hotels and bars, drinking and recreational drug use are, to some extent, to be expected, residents say. It is the party atmosphere that inevitably arises in a place where people come to vacation. "It would be foolish to think that it doesn't go on at a resort beach," Smith said. "I'm not surprised that it was, but I am surprised about who it was." Von Achen's first shock came when she learned that the man in charge of a remodeling project at her home, builder Scott Carstens, was among those indicted federally, and her next-door neighbors, James Allen King and James Grimes, were arrested on state cocaine charges. She got her next jolt when, in the federal affidavit, her own address was cited as a spot where authorities believe Carstens had cocaine dropped off to him from Seale in November. "My involvement with him has been nothing but a pleasure," Von Achen said. "I've seen him working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m." As work on their home has gone on, Von Achen said she and her husband have been in and out of the house frequently. "We were coming and going at all times, and there was never any sign that anything suspicious was going on." Von Achen said she thinks highly of Carstens, who has continued to work "with a smile on his face," day in and day out. "His integrity has not wavered throughout all of this, and I hope that my original feeling about him is right." Almost everyone who lives or works on the beach knows someone who has been named in the sting, Hargrove said. Many know several dozen of them. "At one club meeting, they know one-half of the people who've been arrested," she said. "You go somewhere else, and they know the other half. And if they don't know them, then they at least recognize them from being on the beach." While some residents say drug use among patrons and employees of the Sandshaker was no secret, others say it was never apparent during their visits to the bar, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in October. "It's just a relaxed little place," said Nancy Teston, a Gulf Breeze resident for 32 years. "I haven't seen too much change there over the years besides the paint on the outside." Teston's son once met a girlfriend at the bar, and her daughter met a husband, she said. Wheelock said he has "cried on those girls' shoulders at the Sandshaker for 20 years," every time a relationship has ended. "As many times as I've been in there, I never saw any drugs," he said. "I'm sure there are times when it went on, but I never noticed it." Covert action a surprise As surprised as some residents were by the arrests, most were more surprised that the investigation could unfold in such a covert way - with hidden surveillance cameras installed in Seale's home and agents often watching drug transactions take place. "I'm shocked that it actually took place in such secrecy," Hargrove said. "Things get spread around here so fast. "Now everybody's just wondering when and how it all happened." The investigation ranks as one of the Pensacola area's biggest, and a great deal of manpower and discretion were necessary to pursue it. "It had to have been everywhere you turn," Von Achen said. That video cameras and wiretaps were able to penetrate the beach's tight relationships has unsettled some in the community. "I think there are people out there who haven't been taken in yet, and if they've got something to worry about, I'm sure they're thinking about packing up and leaving," Wheelock said. "I think there are people who've done that already." The investigation has rattled Pensacola Beach - if not everyone on it, then at least those who consider themselves among the old-timers. Residents say it has called into question long-standing loyalties and permanently altered entire families. It has forced many to doubt the people they know and what they know about them. And while there is sympathy for those who are now being accused, there is also a sense of betrayal among many. The Sandshaker is likely to be seized and closed. The beach's reputation as a clean and safe place may suffer. Most of all, though, there is the feeling that the beach family may never recover. "It's just a shame that people who have done so well for themselves and built up such good lives are going to lose it all," Teston said. About a month before the arrests began, a pair of Teston's friends gave her and her husband a gift certificate from the Sandshaker as an anniversary gift. She had planned to use it. "Now it looks like it's just going to be a souvenir." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom