EXOTIC AFRICAN DRUG FOUND DURING SAN LEANDRO ARREST

SAN LEANDRO (CA) -- Police dug up a hillside garden designed to grow
an exotic African drug Thursday in what might be the first bust of its
kind in Alameda County.

The drug is a stimulant knows as khat (pronounced "cot") and is chewed
or made into a tea that produces a high similar to amphetamine, said
San Leandro police Lt. Ian Willis.

Investigators dug up 533 khat plants from the back yard of a house at
1210 Estudillo Ave. The plants weighted 833 pounds and have an
estimated value of $150, 000. Willis said. Several guns and $27, 000
in cash also were recovered.

Detectives still are looking into whether the family who now lives at
the house was selling the illegal drug.

"(But) with that amount of cash on hand and that many plants, we
believe they were (selling)," Willis said. "That's a lot for personal
use."

Four family members who live there were arrested on suspicion of
possession of a controlled substance. They are mother Fatima
Algazzalt, 54; her husband, Albo, 63, and sons, Nadem, 22, and
Rahbaan, 19.

Police also searched a small grocery store run by the family called
Better Trade Market ay 7838 International Blvd.. in Oakland. There
they found another gun and more khat.

The garden consisted of seven levels of terraced plots extending down
a hill side beside the house. A gas-powered pump pulled water form
the nearby San Leandro Creek, probably so the operation wouldn't
attract attention with a high water bill, Willis said.

The plants measured 2 to 3 feet tall, but can grow as high as 9 feet.
Willis said, Small, young leaves are favored by khat users, who stuff
the greenery into their mouths to get high, according to a University
of Pennsylvania Web site of African studies.

To the untrained eye, khat is an unremarkable bush. Though police
have broken up growing operations in Monterey and San Jose, local
narcotics detectives didn't know of any khat gardens ever found in
Alameda County.

People arrested for possession of khat have claimed to have it for
religious or medical use, but Willis rejected that argument.

"It's like an opium den -- saying that's cultural," he
said.

The Latin name for the khat plant is catha edulis or Celastrus edulis,
which has been featured in American gardening guides -- minus, of
course, any mention of the narcotic effect. Willis said, Khat also is
known as qat, African tea, Mirra, and African salad.