FEDS SAY STORE OWNER LIVED A DOUBLE LIFE

Son Calls [name1 redacted] A Family Man, But Agents Link 'Z' To Meth
From Mexico

[name1 redacted] owns convenience stores and a home in suburban Sugar
Land, and he has two kids in college - one a medical student.

If federal agents have it right, the 54-year-old who emigrated from
Pakistan more than 20 years ago also lived a double life.

Far from his family residence on a tree-lined street was a string of
younger lovers, a drug habit and a Houston condo, from which he
allegedly dispensed wildly addictive methamphetamine over games of
pool.

A federal indictment borne from Operation Agent Orange states the man
known as "Z" is part of a 35-person plot that connects Houston to Mexico.

All face at least 10 years and as long as life in prison if convicted
in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

"It is a large organization, as large as they come for crystal meth on
this side (of the border)," testified Agent John Schwartz, of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

The array of alleged conspirators includes rookies and street-hardened
criminals.

[name2 redacted] , 31, served time with the Texas Youth Commission for
capital murder. He co-owns and runs a sports bar.

[name2 redacted] , 30, is charged along with six family members,
accused of being the Mexico connection and described as keenly street
smart and adept at avoiding detection.

[name4 redacted] , 43, owns a home in Houston. After supposedly doing
well in the drug business, he bought a home in the country and
allegedly sustained himself by continued dealing.

The size of the ring likely made for a lot of money and a lot of
dealing, but it might also have been its own undoing, said Tom
Melsheimer, a former federal prosecutor who is now a Dallas-based
defense attorney.

"If the conspiracy is too broad and too involved, that is often a
reason why it is uncovered," he said. "You have weak links. You have
people you don't know particularly well, you can't trust particularly
well."

According to court documents, [name1 redacted] was far from the big
time. But his alleged role selling to dealers and users shows in part
how Mexico-made meth has saturated Houston. The meth dealt by Z at a
low-key condominium on Fondren Road was 50 percent more potent than
typical meth sold in the United States, according to
authorities.

The price has climbed steadily in Houston's streets, jumping 20
percent in 2009 to as much as $24,000 a pound, according to a recent
federal report.

That is twice the value of cocaine and 50 times that of Mexican
marijuana, the most prevalent drug in Houston.

Imported Drugs

Most of the meth here is made in Mexico. The amount confiscated spiked
last year and is expected to increase again, according to an
assessment by Houston's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which
coordinates anti-trafficking efforts for an array of agencies.

Schwartz, who went undercover to catch Z and others, said Z had a
preferred way of doing business.

"When he sells drugs to customers, he likes to relax and play a game
of pool," Schwartz said.

If the pool went well and Z was comfortable, that's all it took.
Sometimes a little Johnny Walker Scotch whisky on ice was involved.

He seemed to trust just about everyone but had burglar bars installed
to thwart a stream of home invasions.

Undercover DEA agents pretended to be organized crime gangsters from
out of state and used a hidden camera to secretly record inside Z's
condo.

There were guns with serial numbers filed off inside the residence,
and [name1 redacted] talked of having a contact that could get him a
passport in as little as two hours if he needed to slip out of the
United States.

One of Z's alleged girlfriends at the time, Ashley Henry, 24, weighed
drugs, counted money and held bills up to the light to make sure they
were real, he said.

She was recorded talking on the phone with another conspirator as she
bragged of having connections in the Aryan Brotherhood and asked if he
could hook her up with members of the Houstones, an especially large
gang also started in prison.

She also said she recently had her gun stolen and wanted to kill
someone who had crossed her on a deal, according to testimony.

Son Defends [name1 redacted]

The [name1 redacted] described by agents is not the man his family
knows, said his 22-year-old son.

He described a father married for more than 25 years to a woman who is
home-bound, but he "stuck with her through thick and thin."

Well spoken and direct, the son said his father was grateful to live
in America.

"Everything we have earned, everything we have, the entire American
dream, my dad has achieved here," he said. "From what I know, my dad
is a very peaceful man, a joyful guy, and would never do any harm to
anybody,"

Banks Kerr, admissions director at the Bay Area Recovery Center, which
treats drug abuse, said it doesn't take much for a person's life to be
torn apart by meth.

"There have been recreational users of methamphetamine, but those
stories are few and far between," he said. "It is not like a high
school kid drinking a Budweiser or smoking a joint, where he can take
it or leave it."

A new user could quickly get addicted snorting amounts so small they'd
be about the size of a pin laid on its side.

"Once they use it, they feel like Superman; it just makes them feel
invincible, like they can do anything," Kerr said. "Eventually, they
become dependent on it and feel like they can't function without it."