SHOW-AND-TELL PART OF CASE AGAINST HEAD SHOP OWNERS

A convicted heroin dealer from the Hill District took the stand in federal
court yesterday and gave a tutorial in how to smoke dope from a bong, how
heroin and cocaine are diluted with cutting agents and how drugs are often
stored in containers designed to look like cans for shaving cream or soda.

The dealer was one of four federal informants who said they bought
drug-related merchandise at Hari's Karishma and Novelties International, two
Downtown head shops owned by Akhil Kumar Mishra and his wife, Rajeshwari.

The Mishras are on trial in U.S. District Court on charges of selling
hundreds of crack pipes, marijuana bongs, digital scales, cutting agents and
other items from the stores.

The shops -- plus a third in Market Square called Giggles, for which the
couple rents space -- are in the heart of Mayor Murphy's proposed Fifth and
Forbes redevelopment zone -- Hari's Karishma at 238 Forbes Ave. and
Novelties International at 130 Fifth Ave.

The Mishras, of Indiana Township, have criticized the plan to raze shops
like theirs and say they are being unfairly targeted by prosecutors who want
to seize their property and get them out of the way.

The government says the Mishras have openly trafficked in illegal
paraphernalia for years, despite Akhil Mishra's conviction in 1991 of
selling the same items from the same stores. At his sentencing, U.S.
District Judge Donald Ziegler told him to stop selling the stuff.

Since then, the Mishras have been indicted twice, in April 1999 and again
last January, based on raids and undercover buys by police and federal
agents from a Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

Earlier this week, DEA agent Richard Nolan described various types of
merchandise authorities confiscated in several raids dating to September
1998. He also instructed the jury in the mechanics of using crack "torches,"
the chemistry of masking agents to camouflage urine samples and how drug
dealers use digital scales to ensure they aren't getting cheated.

Yesterday the jury heard more of the same, this time from customers who have
since been incarcerated. The heroin dealer, who also sold marijuana, said he
bought 100 colored sandwich bags at a time, which he used to package his
drugs to give to his street runners in the Hill. In addition, he said he
bought grinders used to mix drugs, scales for weighing them, various cutting
agents such as quinine for diluting them and cans with screw-off lids for
hiding them.

The jury also heard from Jonathan Love, an Allegheny County police officer
assigned to the DEA task force, who made an undercover buy at Hari's
Karishma in October 1999 while wearing a hidden tape recorder. Love said he
bought four "zeppelin hitter" pipes for smoking marijuana, a 12-inch water
bong and a scale for $88, telling Rajeshwari Mishra he planned to have a
"shindig" for his buddies.

He said bongs and pipes were openly displayed in the shop. But when agents
raided the place the next day, the bongs and pipes were gone, replaced by
T-shirts.

The couple's attorney, Carl Max Janavitz, has yet to present his case. But
at an earlier hearing, he argued that the Mishras were victims of selective
prosecution, singled out for selling the same kinds of items as Internet
distributors who are not prosecuted. He also said the government was going
after the couple because they are property owners with assets, unlike most
paraphernalia shop owners, who rent space.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum rebutted the selective prosecution
argument, saying government agents are pursuing criminal charges against
distributors in other states.

The trial will resume Monday.