GRAND JURY INDICTS OWNER OF DRUGSTORE

Robert J. Warhurst Jr., Four Employees Accused Of Plotting To Provide Cold
Medicine Used In Manufacturing Methamphetamine

A federal grand jury in Mobile has indicted the 70-year-old owner of
University Rexall Drugs and four of his current or former employees,
accusing them of plotting to provide over-the-counter cold medicine for the
manufacture of methamphetamine.

The 11-count indictment, returned late Thursday, charged owner Robert J.
Warhurst Jr. and employees Shiela Engle, Rhonda D. McInvale, Tonya D.
Sheppard and James K. Wells, 73, with one count each of conspiring to
possess pseudoephedrine, knowing it would be used to manufacture metham
phetamine.

Ages for the three women could not be confirmed. By statute, each of the
five could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Pseudoephedrine, a common chemical in cold and flu remedies, has become
such a popular ingredient among meth cooks -- and therefore a frequently
shoplifted item -- that a growing number of pharmacies have taken to
keeping all products containing it behind the counter.

Federal law forbids stores from selling more than 24 grams of
pseudoephedrine in a single transaction and requires reports on all sales
involving 9 grams or more.

Warhurst has owned the pharmacy in the 7700 block of Old Shell Road across
from the University of South Alabama for more than 30 years, according to
Mobile Register archives. U.S. Attorney David York said the other four
defendants worked for Warhurst, though it was unclear whether they remained
employees.

Warhurst's nephew and lawyer, Gene Warhurst Jr., declined to comment on his
uncle's case. The Register was unable to identify lawyers for the other
defendants.

Until recently, University Rexall, unlike most drugstores, was licensed to
sell guns. In one of the largest firearms thefts in the region's history,
burglars rammed a car into the storefront one October night in 1994 and
made off with 73 handguns and a rifle, according to published accounts.

Three months later, thieves returned to take 38 more handguns by drilling a
hole through an outer wall into a safe. A year after that, burglars
snatched an additional nine handguns from the pharmacy, prompting angry
police to order Warhurst to keep his weapons stored more securely.

Warhurst surrendered his federal firearms license around the start of this
year, according to Billy Blair, resident agent in charge of the Mobile
office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The indictment indicates that Drug Enforcement Administration agents have
been investigating Warhurst at least since the latter part of last year.

Largely thanks to homemade labs and its highly addictive nature, meth has
swept through much of the country in recent years, having originated in the
West.

Prosecutors were uncertain whether this was the first time a pharmacist in
south Alabama has been charged with supplying manufacturers of meth. It has
happened elsewhere, according to court records and published accounts.

In August 2000, DEA agents in Nevada arrested four liquor store owners and
charged them with selling bulk pseudoephedrine to meth makers. The
defendants in that case pleaded guilty and were imprisoned. They also
forfeited large amounts of cash and property.

As part of the Mobile indictment, federal prosecutors have filed a
forfeiture claim on the drugstore and the property on which it sits.

An arraignment date for the defendants had not been set as of Friday afternoon.