CITY OFFICER CHARGED IN DRUG CASE

Seven-year veteran accused of being Ecstasy supplier; Federal hearing
today; Investigators say he was involved in plan to manufacture pills

Federal authorities accused a Baltimore police officer yesterday of being a
major local supplier of Ecstasy, the feel-good club drug that Maryland
officials recently targeted as an increasing threat to young people.

Officer John Harold Wilson, 27, is in custody until a detention hearing
today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. He was one of four people
charged yesterday in federal court with conspiring to distribute
methylene-dioxymethamphetamine, the chemical name for Ecstasy.

Court records indicate that Wilson was assigned to the Southeastern
District but has recently been on an extended medical leave. He has been on
the force for seven years. During a brief court appearance yesterday for
the four defendants, U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gessner indicated that
Wilson was suspended from his job after his arrest Tuesday.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris and Mayor Martin O'Malley
have made targeting police corruption a focus of the administration.
Neither was available to comment last night on the charges against Wilson.

Representatives of the two city leaders said they had not seen a copy of
the affidavit detailing the investigation, which was filed late yesterday
in federal court.

In that sworn statement, investigators describe Wilson's alleged role as an
Ecstasy supplier and suggest that he was conspiring with a co-defendant,
construction worker Timothy A. Kohl-haus, 32, of Baltimore County, to
manufacture the tablets.

According to the affidavit, investigators with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency and the Baltimore County and Baltimore City police departments
tracked Wilson through confidential informants, surveillance at his home in
the 1300 block of Bethlehem Ave. since early September and wiretaps on
Wilson's home and cellular phones.

Wilson talked in those conversations about selling 15,000 Ec-stasy pills a
week, relying on go-betweens to take orders and deliver the drugs,
according to court records. The affidavit indicates that Wilson expected
that each of the defendants involved in the plan to manufacture the drug
could collect as much as $600,000.

The charges against Wilson come as Ecstasy is increasingly the target of
local and federal law enforcement. The chemical drug, named for its power
to manipulate brain chemistry, has been linked with late-night dance
parties known as raves, often frequented by suburban teen-agers and college
students.

in September, Maryland officials announced a statewide campaign to warn
young people about the drug's dangers and to alert medical personnel to the
symptoms Ecstasy users might show. The campaign includes the nation's first
public-service television commercials about the drug, which are to be aired
throughout Maryland.

In court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip S. Jackson said
investigators are learning more about the abuse of the drug and its
dangers.

"The effects on these kids is very real and very scary," Jackson said.

Jackson said investigators found about 30,000 Ecstasy tablets - each with a
street value of $20 to $30 - during a search of Wilson's home. The search
also turned up $7,500 in cash and a number of firearms, including two
rifles and five handguns, Jackson said.

Police also executed a search at Kohlhaus' home in the 1900 block of
Sunberry Road, Jackson said.

That search turned up 10 firearms but no pills or chemicals - leading
investigators to believe that the defendants were trying to make the drug
at a separate, unspecified location, Jackson said in court.

"We unfortunately were unable to discover where this laboratory is and
where they were attempting to pull this off," Jackson said.

Court records suggest that the defendants had faced difficulties with the
alleged scheme. In a wiretapped conversation Nov. 30, Kohlhaus told Wilson,
"There is no way ... that we're going to make the quantity that you need.
I'm going to stay here tonight and do what I've got to do, but we've got
real problems," according to the affidavit.

Baltimore attorney Arnold M. Zerwitz, who represented Kohlhaus yesterday,
said no evidence existed of any such lab and noted that the guns found at
Kohlhaus' home were legally owned and registered.

Judge Gessner agreed to release Kohlhaus on a home monitoring system.

She said she would appoint attorneys for Wilson and a third defendant,
Christopher M. Small, 27, of Columbia, who were ordered held until a
hearing today. The fourth defendant, Scott David Prentiss, 24, of College
Park, was released on his own recognizance.

Court papers describe Small and Prentiss, who was charged in a separate
affidavit, as drug traffickers.

If convicted, each of the men could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years
in prison and a $1 million fine.

Sun staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this article.