29 INDICTED IN PLANO HEROIN RING; UNPRECEDENTED CASE ALLEGES CONSPIRACY
IN 4 DRUG DEATHS

PLANO -- U.S. prosecutors yesterday announced a precedent-setting
indictment against 29 people, charging them in a "calculated and
cold-blooded" conspiracy that supplied the heroin that killed four
Plano-area young people.

The indicted range from major distributors from Mexico, to Plano area young
people accused of being the final link in supplying the fatal doses. The
36-count indictment and authorities spell out a deadly chain, from victim
to supplier:

Milan Malina, 20, died of pneumonia and inhaling his own vomit. According
to the federal indictment, the heroin that killed him on June 8, 1997, came
from Christopher Erik Cooper, who got it from John Raymond Hancock.

Wesley Scott, 19, died at a party after inhaling his own vomit. The
indictment states that the heroin that killed him on July 23, 1997, came
from John Hughes Woodward, who got it from John Aaron Pruett. Rob Hill, 19,
was found dead in his own vomit by his parents after a party at Stanley
Edward Belch's residence. According to the indictment, the
heroin that killed him on Aug. 19 came from Belch and from Lloyd Steven
Tilghman, who got it from Arturo Meza, Alfonzo Meza and Jose Alberto Meza.

Erin Baker, 16, went to a party and was likely dead by the time friends
took her to a hospital. According to the indictment, the heroin that killed
her on Nov. 8 came from Steven Craig Kapp, who got it from Santiago Mejia
and Pruett.

The indictment should send a message, said Andrea Hill, the mother of Rob
Hill. "Maybe now the young people won't be so eager to be drug runners,"
she said. "I've been waiting to get this message out. More people are
listening now that their baby might end up in jail."

All 29 defendants will be tried together. If they are convicted,
prosecutors plan to use federal law to lengthen the sentences of those
connected with the deaths to up to life in prison, said U.S. Attorney Mike
Bradford of the Eastern District of Texas.

The punishment enhancements have never been used in a drug case for a group
of defendants, officials said. The intent is to stun heroin traffickers and
users by holding them responsible for deaths.

"While we realize there is nothing we as law enforcement can do to restore
the loss, we must do everything in our power to prevent the destruction of
other young lives by similar means," Plano Police Chief Bruce Glasscock
said yesterday.

Five of those indicted are Mexican nationals arrested in November in
McKinney. Investigators said they are considered to be among the ring's
major suppliers of deadly black tar heroin, known by the street name chiva.
The five are from Guerrero, Mexico, which is known as a key production site
for black tar heroin coming into the United States. They and 13 others
indicted yesterday were already in custody. Plano police rounded up nine
others yesterday. Another is in a Los Angeles rehabilitation program and
one was being sought in the Plano area, officials said.

Eight defendants pleaded not guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court.
Defense attorneys tried to paint their clients as troubled youths who pose
no real danger to the community, and asked that they be released on bail.
U.S. Magistrate Robert Faulkner is not expected to rule on the requests
before tomorrow.

Sharon Belch, the mother of 20- year-old Plano East High School graduate
Stanley Belch, testified that her son is on probation for driving while
intoxicated but is not violent.

"Stan's never been in a fight in his life," Belch said as she wiped tears
from her eyes.

Cornelius Kapp, the father of 20- year-old Steven Kapp, told the judge that
his son is on probation for organized criminal behavior in connection with
breaking into cars. But Kapp said he had not known that his son had
problems with drugs.

"He's been a model child," Cornelius Kapp said.

Michael Samonek, a Dallas attorney representing 19-year-old Christopher
Cooper, said he believes that police were overzealous and were under
pressure to make arrests.

"These young people are facing life in prison," Samonek said. "That's
chilling. Most of these kids are frightened to death, as they should be."

Drug users are responsible for their actions, the attorney contended.
"Where's the common sense? Are these kids taking the syringe and injecting
people? That's ludicrous," Samonek said.

Julio Mercado, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Dallas Field Division, had a ready answer for critics. "I
would say, `How would you feel if it was your son that just got killed?' "
he said. "It's a tragedy that all these kids got out and did this. They
became distributors. It became a way of life. They were out there pushing
and trying to get customers."

Trial is set for Sept. 21 before U.S. District Judge Paul Brown. The
indictment is the first in a long-term investigation of drug deaths in the
Plano area, authorities predicted. The investigative task force includes
police in Plano, McKinney and Allen, the Texas Department of Public Safety
Narcotics Division, the FBI and the DEA.

The investigation started in July 1997 when Plano narcotics detectives
identified a heroin distribution ring. The investigation expanded in
September with the formation of the task force, Glasscock said.

The aggressive prosecution effort, dubbed Operation Chiva, is being used
because heroin traffickers from Guerrero targeted Plano as a new and
lucrative market for their "deadly poison," Bradford said.

"Despite their knowledge that the young people were dying from the use of
this drug, the indictment ... alleges that the defendants intentionally and
in a very calculated and cold-blooded way distributed that heroin with the
knowledge that it was killing people," he said. The defendants cannot be
charged with manslaughter or murder in connection with the deaths,
authorities said.

"There are no laws on the books that can charge a person for manslaughter
for one person giving another person drugs, unless the person actually
forced it on the person," Mercado said.

Plano, an affluent city of 188,000 residents, has been in the maelstrom of
media attention after at least 17 heroin-related deaths of young people.
Yesterday, the news conference announcing the indictment was televised live
on CNN, and participants were interviewed on CNN's TalkBack Live and ABC's
Nightline.

Larry and Donna Scott, the parents of overdose victim Wesley Scott, were
circumspect about yesterday's indictment, calling it "bittersweet."

"With the street-level kids, we really have not wanted to push the
prosecution deal," Larry Scott said. "If that's where the chips fall, so be
it. But we have not been active.

"We have not been looking for a pound of flesh," he said. "If it could be
from someone, it should be from the top."

George Malina, the father of overdose victim Milan Malina, has said he is
troubled by the prospect of more arrests.

"It's no less than a public crucifixion of these people, and I don't think
that is what should be going on," Malina said. "The majority of the people
I see them grabbing are poor Mexicans coming over and seeing their way out
of poverty by selling this stuff. That won't change. They will get others
to take their place."

But Mercado said the Plano indictment will send a message to the drug community.

"I think this is a beginning," he said. "I think if other parts of the
country see what we've done and take the same steps, people will say, `I
don't want to touch it.' This is an education for the United States.

"This is also the first time a community has actually got behind the
police, the federal government, the school system, the churches," Mercado
added. "Everybody has gotten together and formed a nucleus to prevent this
from taking place again."

Susan Gill Vardon, (817) 685-3805 Send your comments to
gillvardon@star-telegram.com

Marisa Taylor, (817) 685-3819 Send your comments to
marisataylor@star-telegram.com

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)