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."