LV MAN SENTENCED IN DRUG CASE

LOS ANGELES -- A man who had ingredients to make methamphetamine but was
never found actually to have produced the drug was sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility of parole.

The case ends an eight-year battle against Jessie Rodriguez Barron, 49, of
Las Vegas, who was sentenced late Monday in federal court.

Prosecutors say Barron was the first in California to face federal charges
under the legal theory that his sales of tons of a "precursor chemical"
constituted a conspiracy to assist in the production of methamphetamine.

When Barron was indicted in 1994, it was uncommon for authorities to arrest
and charge someone for possessing ingredients used to make methamphetamine.

For years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Stern said, such people "were
supporting the manufacture of meth, but it was only the people who were
manufacturing the meth who were being charged."

After he was indicted, Barron fled and resided in Las Vegas until his
arrest last year.