$1.4 MILLION IN DRUGS SEIZED IN MILITARY STING

CAMP LEJEUNE - Civilian and military investigators seized more than $1.4
million worth of illicit drugs and convicted 82 Marines and sailors on
drug-related charges during a two-year operation, military officials
announced Tuesday.

The announcement came at the end of "Operation Xterminator," in which
military and local authorities conducted 150 undercover investigations at
nightclubs in Wilmington to identify users and distributors of designer drugs.

Ninety-nine civilians were also charged in the operation.

It began in February 2000, when Wilmington police called the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service and reported that military personnel were frequently
seen in local clubs where designer drugs were sold and used, said Maj.
Steve Cox, a spokesman for Camp Lejeune.

By the end of the investigation, officials had arrested nearly 200 people
and seized cocaine and thousands of pills of ecstasy, LSD and
methamphetamine, Cox said.

Of the 84 active-duty military personnel charged, 61 were charged under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice with wrongful distribution of drugs, which
carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Several service members received
the maximum sentence.

Twenty-three people were charged with wrongful use of drugs, which carries
a maximum sentence of five years. The sentences also include a dishonorable
discharge and forfeiture of pay and allowances.

Many of the military personnel convicted are already out of the military,
and some are cycling out, Cox said. Two cases are pending.

"For us one person using drugs is too many," he said. "It just doesn't mesh
with our mission."

While Cox said the military was concerned about drug use, he said those
convicted in the operation represent a tiny fraction of the 60,000 military
personnel stationed at the base during the operation.

Designer drugs are not a new problem in Wilmington, nor for Marines
stationed at the base.

In November 2000, a military judge sentenced a Marine to 10 years in prison
after the man pleaded guilty to distributing ecstasy.

At the time, naval investigators said the man was engaged in bringing the
drug to North Carolina from Florida. Investigators said he transported as
many as 70,000 pills and earned as much as $100,000 profit in six months.
The case was the fourth major case in a three-week period, Wilmington
police told a local newspaper.

In December 2000, a Marine pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute
ecstasy and a judge sentenced him to 54 months in prison. The judge
suspended part of that sentence after the man told the court the names of
three other Marines involved. That same month another Marine was sentenced
to five years in prison for dealing in ecstasy.