SHOPKEEPERS CITED FOR ALLEGEDLY SELLING ILLEGAL DRUG INGREDIENTS

Two Tri-City shopkeepers were cited Thursday for allegedly selling bulk
quantities of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine for use in making
methamphetamine.

Officials with the Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force said Thursday's raids
were the start of a campaign to go after merchants who knowingly sell the
ingredients in large amounts needed to make the illegal drug.

"We're not only going after the people who are manufacturing meth, but
we're also going after the people who supply the ingredients for meth,"
said Capt. Doug Chambers, task force administrator. "We're going to attack
the problem on two different fronts ... and who knows where we'll go from
there."

Boo-Rho Park, 45, of Kennewick was cited for the illegal sale of a product
containing pseudoephedrine, a gross misdemeanor. She is the owner of the
Pasco Smoke Shop at 1501 W. Court St.

During a search of Park's shop at 11:38 a.m., task force officers seized
five cases of decongestants at 48 bottles a case. The officers also
confiscated some crack pipes, though they didn't know if the pipes were for
sale or personal use, Chambers said.

The decongestant tablets sell for $20 a bottle on the black market, he
said. Task force officers figured the tablets seized from Park's store
could make about 1.44 pounds of methamphetamine at a street value of
$26,000 to $30,000.

Hee Jung Kim, the 48-year-old owner of the By-pass Mini Mart in Richland,
was cited earlier Thursday and ordered to appear in Benton County District
Court.

Officers took records and invoices connecting Kim's shop "to what we feel
was the illegal sale of pseudoephedrine," Chambers said. No decongestants
were seized during the 9:58 a.m. search at 2201 Stevens Drive, he said.

Pseudoephedrine has a legitimate use as a nasal decongestant, and products
containing it can be sold legally at no more than three packages in a
single transaction. However, the chemicals are strictly regulated because
they are the primary chemicals needed to make methamphetamine.

The law went into effect July 22.

The Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force started investigating this on Nov. 20,
starting with four small retailers who were believed to be selling
pseudoephedrine illegally, Chambers said.

The task force first sent a uniformed officer into each store to give the
owners a packet informing them of the law and explaining the consequences.
That way the owner couldn't plead ignorance if ever busted, Chambers said.

Then undercover officers returned to the stores trying to buy the bottles
in bulk quantities. Two stores refused to sell, but the Pasco Smoke Shop
and By-pass Mini Mart allegedly went through with the transactions,
Chambers said.

They reportedly bought 10 bottles of decongestant one time from each store
and 20 bottles on a second try at the stores, he said.

The task force got search warrants for each shop and returned Thursday,
Chambers said.

"We're alleging that they know what they were doing when they sold to our
undercover operatives," he said.

Chambers said copies of the police reports will be sent to the state
pharmacy board, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Washington State
Patrol narcotics unit, the state Liquor Control Board, the state Department
of Revenue and each city for possible action against their business licenses.

"We want to get serious with this," he said.