Pubdate: Sat, 14 May 2011
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2011 Miami Herald Media Co.
Contact:  http://www.miamiherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Jay Weaver

FEDS DROP MAJOR DRUG CASES AGAINST S. FLA HEAD SHOPS

Federal agents dubbed the case "Operation Cedar Sweep," zeroing in on 
South Florida head-shop owners of mostly Lebanese descent. Some were 
suspected of selling "cut" for cocaine and sending profits to the 
Middle East for possible terrorist activities.

But after a two-year FBI investigation with undercover police 
officers, Miami federal prosecutors lacked evidence to make terrorism 
support cases. And this week, prosecutors also decided to drop 
drug-related charges against 27 defendants, many of whom had been 
detained since their arrests early this year.

"Dropping charges against a few defendants is not that unusual," said 
attorney David Weinstein, former chief of the narcotics and national 
security sections at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, who was not 
involved in the Cedar Sweep probe. "Dropping charges against 27 
defendants connected together in one investigation is highly unusual."

The U.S. attorney's office, which traditionally does not explain why 
it drops charges, issued a statement, saying "new information 
surfaced that, in our discretion, made it appropriate to dismiss the charges."

"At this time, I cannot provide further details of what that 
information entailed, as it is not in the public record," said Alicia 
Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney.

She described the investigation as "Operation Clear Cut" in an email 
to The Miami Herald -- not "Operation Cedar Sweep," which defense 
attorneys say refers to the Lebanese national tree and a symbol that 
appears prominently on its flag.

In February, the U.S. attorney's office issued a press release 
crediting the investigative work of nearly a dozen federal and local 
enforcement agencies that led to the 13 narcotics-related indictments 
of 27 defendants, all owners or employees of head shops in South 
Florida. Head shops, throwbacks to the 1960's, sell drug 
paraphernalia such as rolling papers, bongs and cocaine compressors.

Among the targeted shops: Mushroom Novelty & Gifts, Hip Hop Gift Shop 
and Rainbow 7 in Miami-Dade, as well as head-shop operators at the 
Oakland Park Flea Market in Broward.

The defendants were accused of selling "cut" -- mixtures containing 
regulated pharmaceutical products such as lidocaine, tetracocaine or 
benzocaine -- to drug dealers who would use it to bolster their 
production of cocaine or heroine to maximize street profits.

Prosecutors charged the head shop owners and employees with 
conspiring to aid and abet the manufacture and distribution of 
controlled substances, attempting to aid and abet the manufacture and 
distribution of controlled substances, and selling and offering to 
sell narcotics paraphernalia, such as beakers, baggies and cocaine compressors.

Convictions carried penalties up to life in prison.

The charges were based on undercover cases directed by the FBI's 
counter-terrorism section, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal 
agents deployed undercover officers from Miami-Dade Police and other 
local departments, who posed as drug dealers seeking to buy cutting 
agents and other supplies for the narcotics trade. Using audio and 
video equipment, the officers dropped by the head shops, chatted with 
the owners, and engaged them in recorded conversations about buying 
cut for drugs, according to court records.

Prosecutor Brian Frazier, who works in the U.S. attorney's national 
security section, said in a court filing that the defendants at one 
head shop "supplied the needed ingredients and items in the belief 
that the undercover agent was a narcotics trafficker really engaged 
in the actual cocaine business."

But defense attorneys countered that the prosecution's cases were 
flawed because their clients didn't break the law during the sting operations.

"They sold legal products that you can find at a GNC," said Miami 
attorney Joseph Rosenbaum, who represented Khaled Nabil Ismail and 
Mohamad Ali Jawad, operators of a head shop at the 7th Avenue Flea 
Market. "No drugs were ever found on the premises. No crime was ever 
committed."

Added another defense lawyer in one of the case, Rick Docobo: "You 
can't conspire to aid and abet a nonexistent crime."

Defense attorney Norman Silverman of Texas, put it another way. "The 
police officers came in and pretended to be drug dealers," he said. 
"What was missing? The defendants did not have a stake in the outcome 
of the pretend intentions of the police officers to manufacture cocaine."

Silverman, who represented Imad Mahmoud El Mokaddem, owner of the 
Sunshine Gift head shop in Miami, challenged the government in court 
papers on a different point. He accused federal agents of profiling 
Lebanese head-shop owners, calling the government's investigation 
"selective prosecution" of Lebanese Muslims.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on that point but 
strongly disputed that claim in court papers, saying that at least 
six non-Lebanese Muslims have been charged with "substantially 
identical offenses" in South Florida.

Weinstein, the former federal prosecutor, said the head-shop cases 
likely started when the FBI's counter-terrorism section uncovered 
potential evidence tracing money that had been received by a 
terrorist suspect in the Middle East from one of the South Florida 
head-shop owners.

He said that federal agents tried to establish a stronger connection 
by focusing the undercover operation on the dozen or so head shops -- 
but in the end, evidence for a terrorism support case fell short. So, 
prosecutors opted to charge the owners with drug-related charges, 
with hopes of flipping some to provide inside information about 
potential terrorism support in the Middle East

But that didn't happen.

Weinstein speculated there were aspects of the terrorism 
investigation that would have come to light had prosecutors taken the 
drug-related charges to trial. So, he said, they likely dismissed the 
indictments because of "some greater national security interest." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake