Pubdate: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Author: Cynthia Hubert [Sacramento] Bee Staff Writer Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/ NARCS PROVIDE RAW MATERIAL FOR METH LAB 'Sting' by state put drugs on the street: Undercover work raises questions They were fresh out of prison, and looking to get back into the methamphetamine business. But brothers Erwin and Michael Spruth could not find a steady supply of ephedrine, the raw material they used to manufacture the drug known on the streets as "crank." They were so desperate for the chemical, tightly controlled by federal authorities, that they resorted to extracting it from allergy pills they bought from a Costco store in Redding, the men admit in court records. Then their friend John Rowley met Special Agent Joseph Diaz of the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and suddenly things got much easier. Diaz, with the approval of agency supervisors, posed as a supplier and provided the men with enough ephedrine to produce 66 pounds of methamphetamine between August and October of 1995. But most of the drugs were never recovered. Rather, they ended up on the streets to be inhaled, injected and consumed by addicts, according to court papers. Lawyers for the men, who were arrested and indicted after a raid on a methamphetamine lab in rural Shasta County on Oct. 13, 1995, are calling the narcotics agency's conduct in the case illegal, immoral and an illustration of the dark side of the "war on drugs." "It sends the message that the government may commit crimes and deal dope because its agents carry a badge," said Michael Kennedy, an assistant federal defender formerly in Sacramento and now in Las Vegas. Kennedy contends that bureau's tactics were so odious that a federal indictment charging the three men with crimes that could lead to life imprisonment should be dismissed. Their lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton for a hearing to question state agents about their conduct. If the judge grants the hearing and the "outrageous government conduct" charge is upheld, the brothers, who have a long history of drug manufacturing, and their accomplice could walk free. "That would be a very bad thing," said Nancy Simpson, the federal prosecutor handling the case. Simpson wants Karlton to deny the request for a hearing. She said the agents followed the law and the bureau's written protocol, and acted for "the greater good" of society to take major drug manufacturers off the streets. "I maintain that this was a very well investigated case," said Simpson. But Kennedy and others familiar with the case said it raises serious questions about the use of "reverse sting" operations in narcotics investigations. Narcotics agents and administrators said stings are a critical tool in the war on drugs, but must be employed extremely judiciously to ensure that drugs provided by the government do not end up on the streets. In the Spruth case, the BNE provided more than 102 pounds of ephedrine in exchange for $55,000 in cash, guns and a small amount of crank. Of the 66 pounds of methamphetamine produced with the chemicals provided by agents, 57 pounds and 13 ounces were "sold to the public," court documents indicate. That translates into more than 100,000 doses or "hits" of crank. "How many people were potentially damaged by these drugs?" asked Robert Wilson, a Sacramento attorney representing Michael Spruth. "If this isn't outrageous, I don't know what is." At the time of the transactions, Michael Spruth told The Bee in a jailhouse interview, high-grade methamphetamine was selling for $8,000 per pound. Ephedrine, Rowley said in court documents, was "like gold." Narcotics officers for other agencies said it is highly unusual for drug agents to provide such large amounts of scarce raw material and then fail to recover most of the chemical or end product. A federal agent who requested anonymity said the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which works in concert with the BNE in many cases, would never "sell ephedrine to a crook without a guarantee" that the chemical or product would be recovered. "No way," the agent said. Joycelyn Barnes, spokeswoman for the DEA in San Francisco, said the agency is extremely careful about sting operations, taking the approach only when it offers "the only means of getting a significant violator." Barnes said it is the DEA's general policy to provide suspects only with enough chemicals to allow the person to "test" them for purity. Larger amounts can be distributed only with special approval and assurance that it will be recovered when suspects are arrested, she said. The Spruth brothers, who both had two convictions for methamphetamine manufacturing before their most recent arrest, were the main targets of the BNE sting. Each of the four transactions between their friend Rowley and Special Agent Diaz received approval from top officials in the bureau's regional office in Redding, records show. Special Agent Supervisor Daniel Largent referred all questions about the case to the agency's deputy chief, Jack Beecham in Sacramento. Neither Beecham nor Diaz returned telephone messages from a reporter. "In fairness, not every sting operation is going to work," said Peter Reuter, a professor of public policy and expert on drug policy issues at the University of Maryland's department of criminology and criminal justice. "The question is, how often should they be allowed to go wrong before we say they aren't worth the risk? "It's hard to argue that catching a few felons while loosing 58 pounds of methamphetamine on the public is a good trade. This is clearly a reverse sting that went wrong." It is unclear where the drugs ended up, but the scourge of methamphetamine in California and Sacramento County is well documented. A powdered stimulant that can be snorted, smoked or injected, methamphetamine has become one of the most dangerous and abused illegal drugs in the state and nation, according to police agencies. Law enforcement agencies have stepped up efforts to bust methamphetamine labs, and lawmakers have stiffened penalties for possessing certain chemicals and lab equipment used in manufacturing the drug. Yet abuse of the drug continues to be a huge problem. Statewide, law enforcement groups reported busting 465 meth labs in 1995. In 1996, the last year for which numbers are available, the total exceeded 1,200. Emergency room visits related to abuse of the drug have soared in recent years in California and across the country. California's BNE busts more methamphetamine laboratories each year than any agency in the country, according to a recent study. Many of the cases are tried in federal court, where penalties are much stiffer. California's Eastern District leads the nation by a wide margin in methamphetamine prosecutions, Simpson said. During the first 10 months of 1997, 72 such cases were filed against 163 defendants. Simpson said agents in the Spruth case followed the bureau's regulations, which allow for "precursors" such as ephedrine to be furnished to criminal suspects during clandestine laboratory investigations. The amount varies depending on the case, but should be "sufficient to demonstrate that the lab operator is a major violator," the regulations state. Chemicals, including ephedrine, "should never be used in a manner in which they may chemically expose the public," according to the policy. If they are released, "every effort" should be made to track them to their destination and identify a lab site. Simpson said agents did everything possible to track the chemicals furnished in the Spruth case using a combination of ground and aerial surveillance. "These were not people who would have been interested in purchasing just a teeny tiny amount of ephedrine," she said. "The agents couldn't find the lab site until the last delivery was completed, and as soon as that happened they took it down. The lab was literally bubbling away when they went in." But lawyers for the Spruths and Rowley contend that the men never would have been in business without Diaz and the bureau. "There is no way it could have been done without the cop," said Michael Spruth, 34, a burly man with reddish hair and a neatly trimmed beard. At the time of the transactions, ephedrine was almost impossible to obtain outside Mexico, said Kennedy. For Rowley and the Spruth brothers, the government "was the only game in town," the lawyer said. Before Diaz fronted Rowley an initial 10 pounds of ephedrine, the men could not even come up with three ounces of crank requested by the agent, court documents state. "I don't think there is anything wrong with the BNE looking at the Spruths as potential manufacturers," Kennedy said. "But why would BNE put out more than 60 pounds of ephedrine to try to get them, especially when these guys could not even come up with three ounces of methamphetamine? "It's clear that it was never the state's intent to recover the methamphetamine," he said. "And if you don't do that, how are you any different from the people you are arresting?" Simpson said the fact that methamphetamine was a huge problem in 1995, and remains so in California, contradicts the allegation that the bureau was the only supplier of raw materials for the drug, she said. "We have high-intensity drug trafficking organizations set up to stop the flow of methamphetamine, and we have more out there now than ever," she said. "If government were the only source, we wouldn't have any meth out there and things would be wonderful." Copyright © 1998 The Sacramento Bee