POLICE HIT A MOTHER LODE IN DRUG BUST

Expecting Marijuana Plants, Agents Also Discover Largest Illegal Cache
Of Synthetic Heroin Ever Found.

BIG BEAR, Calif. — When detectives broke through the cabin door in Big Bear
City, they expected to find marijuana plants. They did not expect Jason
Williamson.

Combining knowledge from a couple of college chemistry courses with
information from the Internet, Williamson apparently figured out how to
manufacture a synthetic heroin so powerful that just touching a pure form
of the drug can kill, police say

The lab and the allegations against Williamson are anomalies in a world
where cartels and kingpins dominate narcotics trafficking.

Williamson, 32, does not appear to be involved with any organized
distribution ring and has only one misdemeanor conviction, police say And
it is possible he managed to produce a fortune in drugs the first time he
set up a lab, San Bernardino County sheriff's detective Mike Wirz said.

Detectives who raided the cabin Dec. 4 seized fentanyl with a wholesale
value of $4 million to $5 million, enough of the drug to get 3 million
addicts high. It was the largest seizure of illicit fentanyl ever in the
United States, police said.

"It's such a fluke. There are seizures of an ounce here and an ounce there,
which were thought to be huge," Wirz said.

Williamson pleaded innocent to federal charges of manufacturing fentanyl
and possession with intent to distribute the drug. He is scheduled for
trial next month in U.S. District Court in Riverside. If convicted, he
could face more than 20 years in prison.

The lab was so unusual, in part, because illicit fentanyl is so rare. U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials say they have documented only
three fentanyl labs in the United States in the past 25 years.

The drug is incredibly potent. Where a methamphetamine user might get five
or 10 hits from a gram of high-quality speed, 1 gram of pure fentanyl can
be enough for 5,000 doses of the drug, experts say

"If you just have an extra microgram or two, that could be above the lethal
range," said Tom Abercrombie, assistant laboratory director at the
California Department of Justice's DNA lab in Berkeley

Manufacturing fentanyl is more complicated than synthesizing some other
drugs. The chemicals include solvents such as acetone and more exotic
substances that initiate or halt reactions used in making plastics,
Abercrombie said. Some can cause cancer or damage the nervous system.

Created as a synthetic narcotic for surgical procedures, fentanyl can be
used as a painkiller or an anesthetic. Like heroin, it produces euphoria.
Potency among the dozen or so forms of fentanyl can range from 50 to
several thousand times greater than heroin. Most often, abusers are medical
professionals with access to pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl.

Federal drug agents are trying to link a number of nonfatal overdoses in
Arkansas to the drug that Williamson is accused of manufacturing, Wirz said.

"How many other states got deliveries, I don't know," he said.

Detectives went to Big Bear City after a source had tipped them that
someone was growing marijuana in the cabin. Police with a search warrant
knocked on the door, and when no one answered, they broke in, Wirz said.

Inside, police recovered 86 marijuana plants, most less than a foot tall.
Detectives also found what they thought was a methamphetamine lab.

But as Wirz and another agent popped open a small document safe, an officer
approached with a piece of paper found in another room. Information taken
from the Internet described the chemicals and procedures used to make
fentanyl. The safe contained 8.8 pounds of diluted fentanyl powder in
plastic bags.

Wirz recalled his training classes. Instructors said agents probably would
never see a fentanyl lab. But if they did, Wirz said, "they told us that it
was the most deadly thing we'll ever come across."

Wirz looked at the fentanyl dust that coated the safe he had just handled.
He ordered everyone outside and sealed the house until officials with
proper protective gear arrived.

In addition to the fentanyl powder, authorities found 16 ounces of liquid
fentanyl in the refrigerator, Wirz said. Illicit fentanyl abuse was more
common in the 1980s, when heroin was in short supply said Dr. Gregory
Thompson, director of the Los Angeles Regional Drug Information Center at
the University of Southern California.

In 1999, there were 337 emergency-room visits related to fentanyl abuse
throughout the United States, according to estimates from the Drug
Awareness Warning Network The network collects data from 500 hospitals
across the country and extrapolates the data nationwide.

In the same year, coroners in about 40 U.S. metropolitan areas attributed
53 deaths to fentanyl abuse. Deaths from heroin and morphine abuse numbered
4,820.

Investigators suspect Williamson used Internet chat rooms to contact people
looking to buy the drug. Along with the drug were instructions on how to
dilute, or cut, the fentanyl to reduce its purity Wirz said. Analysis
showed the powdered fentanyl from the cabin was 7.8 percent pure and the
liquid, which had not been cut, was 87 percent pure, Wirz said.

Without sophisticated measuring devices, diluting fentanyl can be a lethal
gamble, DEA spokesman Jose Martinez said.

"You're going to be shooting up fluff that's still too powerful, and it's
going to kill you," he said.

Police checked chemical-supply houses, which report sales of certain
chemicals to the state, and found the record of a one-time purchase by
Williamson. It is possible, Wirz said, that Williamson manufactured drugs
worth millions of dollars on his first try.