FOUR FACE COMMERCE CHARGES OVER PLAN TO ROB DRUG DEALERS

Syracuse NY--Federal prosecutors have charged four men with obstructing
interstate commerce. The men were accused of trying to rob a drug dealer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick said there was precedent for
using the federal Hobbes Act to charge someone accused of obstructing drug
dealing. Earlier this year, a defendant was convicted in U.S. District
Court in Syracuse under that theory, he said. That verdict is being appealed.

The Hobbes Act prohibits the use, or threatened use, of force to obstruct
interstate commerce. Attorney Craig Schlanger, who is representing one of
the defendants, said the law seemed to imply that the commodity being sold
is a legal one.

"It's almost shocking. At least it seems an incredible stretch," Schlanger
said Friday. "If there is any one form of trade that the United States is
not trying to encourage, it's drugs. It just doesn't make sense."

Nevertheless, Schlanger admitted his initial research has turned up legal
decisions supporting the prosecutor's position.

Syracuse police arrested the men last week. They were charged under state
law with criminal possession of a weapon. which carries a maximum sentence
of seven years in prison.

Three of the defendants told Special Agent Henry Meyer of the U.S. Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that they were planning to rob a drug
dealer in the early hours of Aug. 1. An elderly neighbor spotted them
hiding in bushes and called police, who chased the men down when they fled,
according to Meyer's affidavit.

The defendants told Meyer they knew the drug dealer had recently returned
from a trip to buy cocaine, and that they wanted to rob him of his drugs
and money, Meyer's affidavit said.