VA. MURDER PROBE UNCOVERS DRUG RING

MANASSAS, Va. -- A murder investigation has uncovered a complex, massive
and highly profitable drug empire operated by teen-agers and young men from
suburban, middle-class families.

The drug dealers, many recent high school graduates, have sold up to $10
million in marijuana and Ecstasy in the past year, The Washington Post
reported Sunday.

Police learned about the organization after Daniel Robert Petrole Jr., 21,
was shot to death in March outside his town house.

Owen Merton Barber IV, 21, said in court that he killed Petrole at the
behest of his high school buddy, Justin Michael Wolfe. Barber agreed to
plead guilty to first-degree murder and could face a life prison sentence.

Barber testified last month that Petrole would supply Wolfe with more than
$100,000 worth of marijuana, and Wolfe would pay Petrole after splitting
his cache and selling it to other dealers at a significant markup.

Wolfe, 20, is charged with capital murder and drug conspiracy and, if
convicted, could be sentenced to death. Wolfe's attorney, John H.
Partridge, denied his client was involved in the shooting and said Barber
acted alone.

"None of this happened in bad neighborhoods," Prince William detective Greg
Pass told the newspaper. "It bothers everyone involved that in many ways
these kids are mirror images of the detectives working the case, except
they have chosen to go the wrong way."

Petrole's father is retired from the Secret Service. Barber's father is a
retired Marine. Neither had any idea about their sons' alleged crimes.

"Parents are pretty naive, and nobody wants to believe that their kids
could trick them," said Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B.
Ebert. "But these kids laugh about the fact that they can fool their parents."

The youths grew up playing sports, attending church and selling Christmas
trees at the mall parking lot. After turning to the drug trade, they tossed
around thousands of dollars during alcohol-soaked romps at nightclubs in
nearby Washington, D.C., took their girlfriends to Hawaii and dropped piles
of cash on Atlantic City gambling tables.

Wolfe spent much of his childhood with his then-single mother, Terri
Steinberg, and helped take care of his younger brother and sister.

"I don't think I could have managed to work without Justin's help," said
Steinberg, a nurse.

For six months during his senior year, when he was allegedly peddling
drugs, Wolfe dated the daughter of the head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Washington regional office. Wolfe's friends said he
boasted about dating a DEA agent's daughter.

The official, Frank Chellino, now special agent in charge of the DEA's
Miami office, said Wolfe seemed a well-mannered, stable youth.

"I wish I could say something bad about him, but it didn't show itself,"
Chellino said.

Barber's father Owen, said the two enjoyed fishing and the family was solid.

"I guess we had a pretty normal life, and he was taught all the things that
are right and wrong," he said. But he added that his son had trouble coping
with his mother's failed struggle with cancer.