PAPERS DETAIL DRUG SETUP

Unsealed documents say lab operated for three years at Upstate
Medical University.

For the past three years, John Falitico Jr. sneaked into a laboratory
at Upstate Medical University in the middle of the night twice a
month and cooked up a batch of the illegal stimulant methamphetamine,
according to court papers unsealed this week in federal court.

Falitico was selling the drug up to 12 times a month to people who
came to a back door at Weiskotten Hall where corpses were delivered
for autopsy at the state-run teaching hospital, according to an
affidavit from Scott Smith, an Onondaga County sheriff's investigator.

Falitico, technical director of autopsy services at Upstate since
1989, was charged three weeks ago with using the hospital's
laboratory to make methamphetamine, or crank, for his use and profit.
Smith's affidavit was unsealed this week after federal prosecutors
blacked out the names and genders of confidential informants and
cooperating witnesses.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Katko said the investigation is
continuing into the meth lab. He would not say whether more arrests
were possible. Katko said the people who were buying the drugs from
Falitico were "several mid-level dealers" in the Central New York
area.

Falitico told people he learned to make methamphetamine by finding a
recipe on the Internet, according to Smith's affidavit.

Falitico repeatedly told an associate Sept. 28 he was worried that
Upstate officials were beginning to question the orders he'd
submitted for shipments of the chemicals ephedrine hydrochloride, red
phosphorous, iodine and toluene, Smith's affidavit said. Falitico
told police that he'd forged his supervisor's signature on the
orders, the affidavit said.

Falitico told associates he wanted to "legitimize the chemical orders
by fabricating a study," the affidavit said.

Neither Katko nor Upstate officials would say whether Falitico ever
did concoct such a study.

People buying Falitico's drugs would bring between $1,000 and $5,000
to a back door at Weiskotten, Smith's affidavit said. Falitico used
the same routine since 1998, and he made $100,000 "pure profit," he
told police after his arrest.

When he cooked the drug, Falitico would drape a blue sheet over a
window in the lab room he used, Smith's affidavit said. Upstate
officials told investigators Falitico boasted about his drug-making
lab and that he had "ties to criminal organizations that would
protect him," the affidavit said.

Falitico told one associate that he would have him or her "taken out"
if the associate squealed on him, the affidavit said. A witness
interviewed by investigators told of being assaulted by Falitico and
of worries that Falitico would "display irrational behavior" if freed
from jail.

Falitico, 44, is being held in jail without bail. He's been suspended
without pay from his job at Upstate. He's been transient, never
living in one place for more than a few days, according to Smith's
affidavit. When Falitico was arrested, he was living with a
girlfriend at 104 Braintree Lane in Salina.

Falitico used storage rooms at Upstate to hide the chemicals and
other items he used in making methamphetamine, the affidavit said.
Sheriff's deputies and agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration found the drug-making chemicals hidden in boxes and a
foam container labeled with "biohazard" stickers, the affidavit said.

When police searched areas of Weiskotten Hall after Falitico's
arrest, they found enough chemicals for someone to make 3.6 kilograms
of "pure crystal methamphetamine," Katko said. That would translate
into about $500,000 after the drug was cut and sold on the street, he
said.

Falitico bought a 2000 Corvette for nearly $30,000 and owns a 2001
Nissan Pathfinder and a 26-foot boat, the affidavit said. Police
found bank documents showing Falitico had $52,000 in a credit union
account and $179,388 in an annuity. They recovered "a large number"
of hotel receipts from Canada and the United States. Falitico makes
$46,793 a year at Upstate.