NARCS PROVIDE RAW MATERIAL FOR METH LAB

'Sting' by state put drugs on the street: Undercover work raises questions

They were fresh out of prison, and looking to get back into the
methamphetamine business.

But brothers Erwin and Michael Spruth could not find a steady supply
of ephedrine, the raw material they used to manufacture the drug known
on the streets as "crank." They were so desperate for the chemical,
tightly controlled by federal authorities, that they resorted to
extracting it from allergy pills they bought from a Costco store in
Redding, the men admit in court records.

Then their friend John Rowley met Special Agent Joseph Diaz of the
state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and suddenly things got much easier.

Diaz, with the approval of agency supervisors, posed as a supplier and
provided the men with enough ephedrine to produce 66 pounds of
methamphetamine between August and October of 1995. But most of the
drugs were never recovered. Rather, they ended up on the streets to be
inhaled, injected and consumed by addicts, according to court papers.

Lawyers for the men, who were arrested and indicted after a raid on a
methamphetamine lab in rural Shasta County on Oct. 13, 1995, are
calling the narcotics agency's conduct in the case illegal, immoral
and an illustration of the dark side of the "war on drugs."

"It sends the message that the government may commit crimes and deal
dope because its agents carry a badge," said Michael Kennedy, an
assistant federal defender formerly in Sacramento and now in Las Vegas.

Kennedy contends that bureau's tactics were so odious that a federal
indictment charging the three men with crimes that could lead to life
imprisonment should be dismissed.

Their lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton for a
hearing to question state agents about their conduct.

If the judge grants the hearing and the "outrageous government
conduct" charge is upheld, the brothers, who have a long history of
drug manufacturing, and their accomplice could walk free.

"That would be a very bad thing," said Nancy Simpson, the federal
prosecutor handling the case.

Simpson wants Karlton to deny the request for a hearing. She said the
agents followed the law and the bureau's written protocol, and acted
for "the greater good" of society to take major drug manufacturers off
the streets.

"I maintain that this was a very well investigated case," said Simpson.

But Kennedy and others familiar with the case said it raises serious
questions about the use of "reverse sting" operations in narcotics
investigations.

Narcotics agents and administrators said stings are a critical tool in
the war on drugs, but must be employed extremely judiciously to ensure
that drugs provided by the government do not end up on the streets.

In the Spruth case, the BNE provided more than 102 pounds of ephedrine
in exchange for $55,000 in cash, guns and a small amount of crank. Of
the 66 pounds of methamphetamine produced with the chemicals provided
by agents, 57 pounds and 13 ounces were "sold to the public," court
documents indicate.

That translates into more than 100,000 doses or "hits" of crank.

"How many people were potentially damaged by these drugs?" asked
Robert Wilson, a Sacramento attorney representing Michael Spruth. "If
this isn't outrageous, I don't know what is."

At the time of the transactions, Michael Spruth told The Bee in a
jailhouse interview, high-grade methamphetamine was selling for $8,000
per pound. Ephedrine, Rowley said in court documents, was "like gold."

Narcotics officers for other agencies said it is highly unusual for
drug agents to provide such large amounts of scarce raw material and
then fail to recover most of the chemical or end product.

A federal agent who requested anonymity said the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency, which works in concert with the BNE in many cases,
would never "sell ephedrine to a crook without a guarantee" that the
chemical or product would be recovered.

"No way," the agent said.

Joycelyn Barnes, spokeswoman for the DEA in San Francisco, said the
agency is extremely careful about sting operations, taking the approach
only when it offers "the only means of getting a significant violator."

Barnes said it is the DEA's general policy to provide suspects only
with enough chemicals to allow the person to "test" them for purity.
Larger amounts can be distributed only with special approval and
assurance that it will be recovered when suspects are arrested, she said.

The Spruth brothers, who both had two convictions for methamphetamine
manufacturing before their most recent arrest, were the main targets
of the BNE sting.

Each of the four transactions between their friend Rowley and Special
Agent Diaz received approval from top officials in the bureau's
regional office in Redding, records show.

Special Agent Supervisor Daniel Largent referred all questions about
the case to the agency's deputy chief, Jack Beecham in Sacramento.
Neither Beecham nor Diaz returned telephone messages from a reporter.

"In fairness, not every sting operation is going to work," said Peter
Reuter, a professor of public policy and expert on drug policy issues
at the University of Maryland's department of criminology and criminal
justice. "The question is, how often should they be allowed to go
wrong before we say they aren't worth the risk?

"It's hard to argue that catching a few felons while loosing 58 pounds
of methamphetamine on the public is a good trade. This is clearly a
reverse sting that went wrong."

It is unclear where the drugs ended up, but the scourge of methamphetamine
in California and Sacramento County is well documented. A powdered
stimulant that can be snorted, smoked or injected, methamphetamine has
become one of the most dangerous and abused illegal drugs in the state and
nation, according to police agencies.

Law enforcement agencies have stepped up efforts to bust
methamphetamine labs, and lawmakers have stiffened penalties for
possessing certain chemicals and lab equipment used in manufacturing
the drug. Yet abuse of the drug continues to be a huge problem.

Statewide, law enforcement groups reported busting 465 meth labs in
1995. In 1996, the last year for which numbers are available, the
total exceeded 1,200. Emergency room visits related to abuse of the
drug have soared in recent years in California and across the country.

California's BNE busts more methamphetamine laboratories each year
than any agency in the country, according to a recent study. Many of
the cases are tried in federal court, where penalties are much
stiffer. California's Eastern District leads the nation by a wide
margin in methamphetamine prosecutions, Simpson said. During the first
10 months of 1997, 72 such cases were filed against 163 defendants.

Simpson said agents in the Spruth case followed the bureau's
regulations, which allow for "precursors" such as ephedrine to be
furnished to criminal suspects during clandestine laboratory
investigations. The amount varies depending on the case, but should be
"sufficient to demonstrate that the lab operator is a major violator,"
the regulations state.

Chemicals, including ephedrine, "should never be used in a manner in
which they may chemically expose the public," according to the policy.
If they are released, "every effort" should be made to track them to
their destination and identify a lab site.

Simpson said agents did everything possible to track the chemicals
furnished in the Spruth case using a combination of ground and aerial
surveillance.

"These were not people who would have been interested in purchasing
just a teeny tiny amount of ephedrine," she said. "The agents couldn't
find the lab site until the last delivery was completed, and as soon
as that happened they took it down. The lab was literally bubbling
away when they went in."

But lawyers for the Spruths and Rowley contend that the men never
would have been in business without Diaz and the bureau.

"There is no way it could have been done without the cop," said
Michael Spruth, 34, a burly man with reddish hair and a neatly trimmed
beard.

At the time of the transactions, ephedrine was almost impossible to
obtain outside Mexico, said Kennedy. For Rowley and the Spruth
brothers, the government "was the only game in town," the lawyer said.

Before Diaz fronted Rowley an initial 10 pounds of ephedrine, the men
could not even come up with three ounces of crank requested by the
agent, court documents state.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with the BNE looking at the
Spruths as potential manufacturers," Kennedy said. "But why would BNE
put out more than 60 pounds of ephedrine to try to get them, especially
when these guys could not even come up with three ounces of
methamphetamine?

"It's clear that it was never the state's intent to recover the
methamphetamine," he said. "And if you don't do that, how are you any
different from the people you are arresting?"

Simpson said the fact that methamphetamine was a huge problem in 1995,
and remains so in California, contradicts the allegation that the
bureau was the only supplier of raw materials for the drug, she said.

"We have high-intensity drug trafficking organizations set up to stop
the flow of methamphetamine, and we have more out there now than
ever," she said. "If government were the only source, we wouldn't have
any meth out there and things would be wonderful."

Copyright © 1998 The Sacramento Bee