FEDS DROP MAJOR DRUG CASES AGAINST S. FLA HEAD SHOPS

Federal agents dubbed the case "Operation Cedar Sweep," zeroing in on
South Florida head-shop owners of mostly Lebanese descent. Some were
suspected of selling "cut" for cocaine and sending profits to the
Middle East for possible terrorist activities.

But after a two-year FBI investigation with undercover police
officers, Miami federal prosecutors lacked evidence to make terrorism
support cases. And this week, prosecutors also decided to drop
drug-related charges against 27 defendants, many of whom had been
detained since their arrests early this year.

"Dropping charges against a few defendants is not that unusual," said
attorney David Weinstein, former chief of the narcotics and national
security sections at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, who was not
involved in the Cedar Sweep probe. "Dropping charges against 27
defendants connected together in one investigation is highly unusual."

The U.S. attorney's office, which traditionally does not explain why
it drops charges, issued a statement, saying "new information
surfaced that, in our discretion, made it appropriate to dismiss the charges."

"At this time, I cannot provide further details of what that
information entailed, as it is not in the public record," said Alicia
Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney.

She described the investigation as "Operation Clear Cut" in an email
to The Miami Herald -- not "Operation Cedar Sweep," which defense
attorneys say refers to the Lebanese national tree and a symbol that
appears prominently on its flag.

In February, the U.S. attorney's office issued a press release
crediting the investigative work of nearly a dozen federal and local
enforcement agencies that led to the 13 narcotics-related indictments
of 27 defendants, all owners or employees of head shops in South
Florida. Head shops, throwbacks to the 1960's, sell drug
paraphernalia such as rolling papers, bongs and cocaine compressors.

Among the targeted shops: Mushroom Novelty & Gifts, Hip Hop Gift Shop
and Rainbow 7 in Miami-Dade, as well as head-shop operators at the
Oakland Park Flea Market in Broward.

The defendants were accused of selling "cut" -- mixtures containing
regulated pharmaceutical products such as lidocaine, tetracocaine or
benzocaine -- to drug dealers who would use it to bolster their
production of cocaine or heroine to maximize street profits.

Prosecutors charged the head shop owners and employees with
conspiring to aid and abet the manufacture and distribution of
controlled substances, attempting to aid and abet the manufacture and
distribution of controlled substances, and selling and offering to
sell narcotics paraphernalia, such as beakers, baggies and cocaine compressors.

Convictions carried penalties up to life in prison.

The charges were based on undercover cases directed by the FBI's
counter-terrorism section, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement
Administration, IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal
agents deployed undercover officers from Miami-Dade Police and other
local departments, who posed as drug dealers seeking to buy cutting
agents and other supplies for the narcotics trade. Using audio and
video equipment, the officers dropped by the head shops, chatted with
the owners, and engaged them in recorded conversations about buying
cut for drugs, according to court records.

Prosecutor Brian Frazier, who works in the U.S. attorney's national
security section, said in a court filing that the defendants at one
head shop "supplied the needed ingredients and items in the belief
that the undercover agent was a narcotics trafficker really engaged
in the actual cocaine business."

But defense attorneys countered that the prosecution's cases were
flawed because their clients didn't break the law during the sting operations.

"They sold legal products that you can find at a GNC," said Miami
attorney Joseph Rosenbaum, who represented Khaled Nabil Ismail and
Mohamad Ali Jawad, operators of a head shop at the 7th Avenue Flea
Market. "No drugs were ever found on the premises. No crime was ever
committed."

Added another defense lawyer in one of the case, Rick Docobo: "You
can't conspire to aid and abet a nonexistent crime."

Defense attorney Norman Silverman of Texas, put it another way. "The
police officers came in and pretended to be drug dealers," he said.
"What was missing? The defendants did not have a stake in the outcome
of the pretend intentions of the police officers to manufacture cocaine."

Silverman, who represented Imad Mahmoud El Mokaddem, owner of the
Sunshine Gift head shop in Miami, challenged the government in court
papers on a different point. He accused federal agents of profiling
Lebanese head-shop owners, calling the government's investigation
"selective prosecution" of Lebanese Muslims.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on that point but
strongly disputed that claim in court papers, saying that at least
six non-Lebanese Muslims have been charged with "substantially
identical offenses" in South Florida.

Weinstein, the former federal prosecutor, said the head-shop cases
likely started when the FBI's counter-terrorism section uncovered
potential evidence tracing money that had been received by a
terrorist suspect in the Middle East from one of the South Florida
head-shop owners.

He said that federal agents tried to establish a stronger connection
by focusing the undercover operation on the dozen or so head shops --
but in the end, evidence for a terrorism support case fell short. So,
prosecutors opted to charge the owners with drug-related charges,
with hopes of flipping some to provide inside information about
potential terrorism support in the Middle East

But that didn't happen.

Weinstein speculated there were aspects of the terrorism
investigation that would have come to light had prosecutors taken the
drug-related charges to trial. So, he said, they likely dismissed the
indictments because of "some greater national security interest."