2 POUNDS OF METHAMPHETAMINE CONFISCATED

20yearold Woman Charged; Official Says It Was Largest Amount Taken Here

By Neil D. Rosenberg of the Journal Sentinel

An alleged drug courier from Los Angeles was charged Tuesday in a federal
complaint with possession with intent to distribute what could be the
largest amount of methamphetamine ever confiscated in Milwaukee.

Zuky Camacho, 20, was detained Friday by two Milwaukee County sheriff's
detectives who staked out an America West flight from Los Angeles. They
stopped her because she fit a drug profile, Sheriff Lev Baldwin said.

A search of the woman uncovered 2 pounds of "peanut butter meth" strapped
around her waist by a girdle and an elastic waist belt, according to the
complaint. It was the largest amount ever submitted to the state crime lab
here, according to lab forensic scientist, Birjees Kauser.

It was the first drug bust involving methamphetamine this year, and Kauser
said the laboratory analyzed only one or two samples of methamphetamine
during 1996.

Baldwin said the drug is rare in Milwaukee. "It is generally not seen here,
though it is seen on a limited basis in Madison and Wausau," he said.

The amount seized would have supplied at least 1,000 doses and had a street
value of $100,000.

What Baldwin doesn't know and what still is under investigation is whether
the drug was destined for sale in Milwaukee or elsewhere.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant that is prescribed for obesity or attention
deficit disorder. But it is widely abused, primarily on the West and East
coasts, where it is made in illicit laboratories or smuggled in from Mexico.

"Peanut butter meth" is a name give to methamphetamine which, after a
certain type of production, takes on a brownbeige color similar to peanut
butter, Kauser said. At that stage, it is in chunks, which later are ground
into powder that can be snorted or injected.

As a stimulant acting directly on the central nervous system, it produces
feelings of euphoria, pleasure and a sense of peace. But it can be
addictive and produce feelings of paranoia, hallucinations, irritability,
hyperexcitability and a psychosis indistinguishable from schizophrenia,
according to the Physicians' Desk Reference.

Camacho appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan Jr.
and was charged with felony possession of a Schedule III drug, which
carries a minimum mandatory prison term of 10 years and possible life
imprisonment.

A detention hearing was set for today.

The criminal complaint paints a picture of Camacho acting, in the parlance
of the drug trade, as a mule: someone who transports illegal drugs.

Camacho told detectives she was given the packages in Los Angeles, driven
to the airport and given her tickets to Milwaukee. Once here, she was to
meet someone whom she did not know outside the baggage pickup area. She
said she was told her contact would find her, the complaint says.

The two detectives stopped Camacho because she was a female Hispanic who,
after passing them, was walking slowly and "looking straight ahead, except
for two times when she looked at her waist area," according to the complaint.

After tugging on her sweat shirt several times, Camacho was stopped by the
detectives, who began questioning her. She willingly let them search her
bag and eventually she agreed to pull up her sweat shirt. Detective Scott
Kuhntz said he saw a bulge in her lower waist area and felt a large, hard,
bricklike item. She then was handcuffed.

In the airport's security office, a more detailed search yielded two
rectangular, bricklike packages wrapped in brown plastic tape. Underneath
four layers of tape and plastic wrap they found a Ziploc bag with the
tancolored substance.

Camacho told the detectives she had been paid $1,000 to carry the packages
and said she did not know what was in them.