MAN ARRESTED IN SALE OF DRUGS OVER INTERNET

The Web site for Biotech International looked like any number of legitimate
Internet advertisements. Computer browsers who visited www.biotech-intl.com
found a professional logo, a product list and an order form for "fine
chemicals and pharmaceutical intermediates."

But the police said yesterday that Biotech International was a fraud, and
that the Web site served as a billboard for a sham company that sold
so-called date-rape drugs.

In a case that the police said was the first time New York detectives
engaged in a "buy and bust" investigation over state lines via the
Internet, the owner of Biotech International, Adriano Sanchez, 44, was
arrested yesterday at his Las Vegas home. The police said Mr. Sanchez, a
former restaurant busboy masquerading as a professional chemist, sold New
York City narcotics detectives two packages -- about 70 grams -- of
ketamine hydrochloride, a veterinary anesthetic known as Special K.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir said ketamine hydrochloride sells for
about $20 a gram on the street. He said it was "frequently used as a
date-rape drug, and is a popular designer drug in the club scene in New
York City."

Possession of the drug is illegal in both Nevada and New York, and the
substance was listed as a federally controlled substance last August.

Mr. Safir said detectives had been monitoring Web sites and caught Mr.
Sanchez in a simple sting last year after seeing Biotech International
describe ketamine hydrochloride as a vitamin. The police said detectives
assumed fictitious names and sent the company an e-mail inquiry about
prices for the drug. After the company replied with a price sheet, the
detectives sent two money orders to a post office box in Las Vegas. Mr.
Sanchez then mailed them packages of ketamine hydrochloride, the police said.

The detectives first bought 20 grams of the substance for $280 last June;
in the second order, last August, they bought 50 grams for $575, the police
said.

Mr. Sanchez, 44, was charged with two counts of criminal sale of a
controlled substance. Detectives also searched his home and seized his
computer records. The police said they believed Mr. Sanchez might have sold
the drug to customers in three states, as well as in Japan and the
Netherlands.