TIP ENDS MARINES' DRUG RING

JACKSONVILLE - It began with a tip about the nightclubs of downtown
Wilmington, where patrons -- many of them Marines -- were dancing the night
away on ecstasy.

Soon military investigators and local narcotics officers were sharing what
their informants were telling them about the illegal drug, and by the end
of 1999 realized they had a problem:

A surprising number of enlisted personnel from Camp Lejeune were heavily
into the local "designer drug" scene, hanging out in clubs, at ecstasy
parties called "raves" and in small groups in homes in Wilmington,
Jacksonville and Greenville.

That early tip led to the biggest drug probe ever at Camp Lejeune, the
largest Marine base on the East Coast. This week authorities disclosed that
the investigation resulted in the arrests of 183 people, more than half of
them Marines, and the seizure of more than $1.4 million worth of ecstasy
and other illegal drugs over the past two years.

'Xterminator'

On Wednesday, officials with the Marine Corps and the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service held a news conference to explain what they called
"Operation Xterminator," saying it successfully dented ecstasy trafficking
in Onslow and New Hanover counties and sent a warning that military drug
use will be punished harshly.

Eighty-one Marines, three Navy sailors and one Department of Defense
employee at the base were arrested; all but two have been convicted after
military trials and are serving sentences ranging from three to 19 years in
prison, military officials said. The enlisted members will be dishonorably
discharged after their prison terms end.

NCIS Agent Robin Knapp, who led the investigation, said the arrests don't
indicate that there is a widespread drug problem at the Marine base, noting
that there were between 50,000 and 60,000 personnel stationed there at
various times during those two years.

The officials said they did not know how many of the 99 civilians have been
convicted.

"This is significant for us," Knapp said. "There are a lot of people that
worked this operation that put a lot of time and effort into this." The
state headquarters for NCIS, which is a civilian federal law enforcement
agency for the Navy and Marine Corps, is at Camp Lejeune. Knapp said he
decided immediately to see if the tips about Marine drug use were accurate,
and he turned to local narcotics officers for help.

The vice/narcotics squads of the Wilmington Police Department and the New
Hanover County Sheriff's Department had merged in 1997 so they could
coordinate local drug cases. Col. Sid Causey of the joint drug team said
Wednesday his officers were hearing the same tips by 2000.

"It was very, very popular here during that period," Causey said.

Knapp said undercover agents were sent into the clubs to confirm what was
going on. "Once we had enough information to substantiate some of the
claims of the cooperating witnesses, we launched an operation," he said.

Eventually, Jacksonville police, the Onslow County Sheriff's Department and
the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation were brought into the case. Agents
set up surveillance, made undercover buys and often persuaded those
arrested to lead them to others in exchange for lighter sentences. Knapp
said there was no single drug ring controlling the local market, but rather
groups of people who in some instances knew each other. The probe also
turned up LSD, methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine and GHB (known as the
"date rape" drug).

Knapp said the focus of the investigation, however, was on people who sold
ecstasy, mainly in nightclubs and at raves.

The probe was supposed to last for 90 days, Knapp said, but it quickly
became so successful that agents kept it up for two years.

"We continued on with the operation until we got to the point where we felt
like we made a major impact on some of these individuals and locations,"
Knapp said. "We finally decided to pull up the carpet, so to speak, and
shut the operation down for now."

He declined to say who investigators think was supplying the Marines with
ecstasy because that is still under investigation.

Club Connections

One of the clubs that investigators focused on was a downtown Wilmington
nightspot that has had several different names in recent years and is now
out of business. Two of the club's managers were involved in illegal drugs,
Knapp said.

"It was called 'Dot Com,' " he said. "Now it's called 'For Rent' -- that's
what the sign on the building says."

Dot Com became one of a handful of businesses that the Marine Corps put off
limits because of the investigation, Maj. Steve Cox said. There are about
two dozen places that are off-limits for the base, he said.

Wilmington's college students and beachgoers provide a steady clientele for
the town's thriving club scene. Drug abuse counselors say they have known
for some time about the connection of clubs and ecstasy users.

"They have the energy to dance all night. It's called the 'love drug'
because it gets them mellow," said Ruth Trammel, a counselor at Coastal
Horizons, a treatment center in Wilmington. "Clubs like to have them using
ecstasy because they tend not to fight."

Ecstasy is a stimulant and hallucinogen that sells for about $30 a tablet.

But using the drug in clubs is not as popular as it once was, Trammel said.
"It's coming out of the club scene and into the mainstream," she said.
"They'll do it in just a group of four or five people in a dorm or in a
person's house."

Trammel said counselors usually don't see people seeking help just for an
ecstasy problem.

But it can be a "gateway" to other drugs that are more likely to be
harmful, she said. There is a common misperception that ecstasy is safe,
Trammel said.

Although infrequently, it can lead to severe dehydration, seizures, heart
failure or paranoia. Recent studies suggest it can lead to long-term
depression after a user quits the drug, she said.

"It's there, it's available and the kids see it as innocent," Trammel said.