HUMBLE CHEMIST ACCUSED IN HUGE ECSTASY OPERATION

A chemist from Humble was accused Monday of providing expertise and
supplies to what authorities say was one of the largest and most
sophisticated Ecstasy labs ever found in the United States.

Hobart Huson, 33, was arraigned Monday in federal court in San Diego on a
charge of conspiracy to manufacture Ecstasy. He pleaded not guilty.

He is one of 24 people charged with helping to set up and run an Ecstasy
lab hidden inside an Internet pornography business in an office park in
Escondido, Calif.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the lab last month.
It was capable of producing 1.5 million Ecstasy pills per month,
authorities said.

Ecstasy is also known as the "love drug" or "hug drug" for its ability to
make users ultrasensitive to visual and physical stimuli.

Huson was arrested in Humble in mid-October, said his Houston lawyer, Gus
Saper. Early last week, Huson was moved to Oklahoma and then transported to
San Diego over the weekend.

Under the pseudonym "Strike," Huson authored a guide for producing Ecstasy.
He also is co-owner of the Science Alliance, an Humble chemical supply
company that sells products on the Internet.

Huson is accused of supplying chemicals for making Ecstasy along with
technical expertise to the operators of the California lab, Assistant U.S.
Attorney Todd Robinson said.

He also is accused of introducing the lab's operators to Thomas Lillius, a
33-year-old suspected Ecstasy chemist from Stockholm, Sweden, who remains
at large.

Saper denies the allegation that Huson knew the chemicals he sold would be
used illegally. He said the Science Alliance is a legitimate chemical
supply company.

"He did not sell any illegal chemicals," Saper said. "If you were to take
all the chemicals he sold, that we are aware of, you couldn't have
manufactured anything illegal."

Saper added that the book Huson authored, Total Synthesis II, is intended
for information only and that it includes a disclaimer that warns people of
the legal and safety hazards of making Ecstasy.

"Just because it describes how to do it doesn't make it illegal to write or
sell the book. Any chemist can learn how to do illegal things just by going
to school," Saper said. "My client just collected information from many
difference sources and gathered it in one place."

A description on Amazon.com calls Total Synthesis II "the most
comprehensive and detailed book on the underground production of Ecstasy
and amphetamines ever published."

Huson remains in custody in San Diego. Saper said he will go to California
within a week to visit Huson.

After authorities raided an Ecstasy lab in Flagstaff, Ariz., earlier this
year, Huson was charged with three counts of selling a precursor to drugs
and one count of manufacturing dangerous drugs.

The suspects in that case told authorities they bought chemicals for making
Ecstasy from the Science Alliance and learned how to make the drug by
reading a book by Huson.

Huson pleaded innocent in that case and was free on $50,000 bail when he
was charged in the California case.