OSCAR SCAGGS' ALLEGED DRUG SUPPLIERS ARRESTED

Cops say series of busts has netted small and major heroin dealers

San Francisco police made the latest in a series of major drug busts
Thursday that has also included the alleged wholesale suppliers of the
heroin that caused the overdose death of bluesman Boz Scaggs' 21-year-old
son.

"We've taken down several major wholesalers in the past several days," said
Lt. Kitt Crenshaw of the San Francisco Police Narcotics Unit. "This has been
a very busy week."

At 7 a.m. Thursday, a task force of police and agents from the FBI and Drug
Enforcement Administration arrested two San Francisco men who are alleged
members of the Up-The-Hill-Down-The-Hill Gang, based in the Sunnydale public
housing projects.

The team arrested Aaron Levall Harris, 34, and Asa Roberts, who is in his
30s, and confiscated nearly a pound of cocaine, one handgun and some
ammunition. The cocaine and a handgun were discovered while the task force
was serving a search warrant at Harris' residence at 290 Hahn St., Crenshaw
said. Investigators also found ammunition and other unspecifed evidence at
Roberts' home on 440 Sawyer St., Crenshaw said.

Harris and Roberts were each being held in County Jail on $250,000 bail on
suspicion of trafficking of cocaine and maintaining a residence where
narcotics are used and sold, Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw also announced that four men were arrested last week in an
investigation that began in January after the fatal overdose of Oscar
Scaggs, the 21-year-old son of musician and nightclub owner Boz Scaggs.
There were several other fatal overdoses that same month that authorities
believe were linked to an especially pure strain of Mexican black tar
heroin, which historically is known for its low purity.

"After the death of Boz Scaggs' son, we've received a whole lot of tips that
ultimately led us to these guys," Crenshaw said. "Boz Scaggs' son was buying
with a smaller dealer from the Mission - a little nickel and dime dealer
who's been busted a bunch of times in the Mission (District). We started
looking at him and we worked our way back to the larger suppliers."

The investigation has led authorities to four men believed to be part of a
larger ring of heroin suppliers based in the Central Valley in and around
Modesto, Crenshaw said. The men - Javier Aparicio 23, of Modesto; Pablo
Pineda, 18, of Modesto; Jose Valencia, 20, of Oakland; and Francisco
Birrueta, 22, of San Francisco - are all being held in County Jail, in lieu
of $250,000 bail, on suspicion of trafficking and transporting heroin.

Aparicio and Birrueta were arrested on March 24 at 18th and Valencia streets
with 2-1/4 pounds of heroin in their car after police bought drugs and
followed them to another sale, Crenshaw said. Valencia and Pineda were
arrested with another 2-1/4 pounds of heroin on March 26 after a team of
undercover investigators followed them to a home in the 400 block of Italy
Street in the Excelsior District, he said.

After Scaggs' death, "we started looking at the ties between these
small-time dealers in San Francisco and this connection from the Central
Valley," Crenshaw said. "They were delivering a pound or two a day. They had
runners and drops all over San Francisco."

Harris, arrested in the Thursday raid, is also being held for a parole
violation that resulted from a 1994 conviction in a case that was featured
on the TV show "America's Most Wanted," Crenshaw said. Investigators found
the left prosthetic eye at the scene of the Jan. 16, 1993, robbery and
traced it to Harris through the encoded information - which included his
name and the medical facility where he had been treated, the FBI said. He
was arrested in Oakland in November 1993 and convicted the next year.