DRUG PRESSES CAME WITH TIPS, COPS SAY

Buyers of drug presses from an Orlando head shop also got
instructional tips, according to the Metropolitan Bureau of
Investigation.

A clerk at the Apollo of Miami Tobacco Shop told agents they could
boost their profits by mixing heroin or cocaine with baby laxative and
press it into blocks to be resold as uncut drugs, MBI Lt. Bruce Parker
said Wednesday.

"He put on a school," Parker said.

A morning raid at Apollo and the Magic Tobacco Shop, both inside the
Magic Mall at 2155 W. Colonial Drive, ended with the confiscation of
numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia, including drug presses selling
for up to $900, agents said.

The shops sold six hydraulic drug presses seized in a major drug
investigation in Orange County last year, according to MBI. The
presses handled amounts ranging from half a pound to 2.2 pounds as
well as smaller "fingers," a one-third ounce pellet bought most often
by midlevel dealers, agents said.

In Orlando, heroin sold in single-dose packets usually contains about
30 percent of some mixing agent, according to the crime laboratory of
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Ali Fadllel Chami, 31, of Orlando, a clerk at the Apollo, and Ali
Yousef Foubai, 39, of Orlando, a clerk at Magic Tobacco, were charged
with manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia. They were sent to
the Orange County Jail in lieu of $2,000 bail.