Pubdate: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 Source: Enid News & Eagle (OK) Copyright: Enid News & Eagle 2002 Contact: http://www.enidnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2012 Author: Jay F. Marks SELLING TROUBLE 5 face charges in the barter of vital ingredient of meth. Five Garfield County residents are free on $10,000 bond after being charged Friday with illegally selling an over-the-counter nasal decongestant that is a vital ingredient in clandestine methamphetamine labs. Two others face similar charges in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City. They were released Friday after posting $50,000 bond. The suspects were charged as a result of a two-year investigation by federal, state and local authorities into the unlawful sale of pseudoephedrine. It is against the law to sell pseudoephe-drine with the knowledge the buyer will use it to illegally manufacture meth-amphetamine. Officers from Enid Police Department, District 26 Multi-County Narcotics Task Force, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Drug Enforcement Administration teamed up in the investigation, which utilized undercover agents to purchase pseudoephedrine at a number of local stores. The undercover officers always let the suspects know they were buying pseudoephedrine to be using in manufacturing methamphetamine, according to court documents. Authorities searched six Enid businesses and one in Lahoma for more pills and purchasing records Thursday afternoon. Six of the seven suspects were arrested at that time. Chang Bae Kim, Joon Tag Cho, Claude Allen McFalls, Young Tag Cho and Myong Davis are facing charges in Garfield County District Court, while Prakesh Patel and Daniel Bruce Huston are being prosecuted by federal authorities. On Thursday, Narcotics Task Force Deputy Kim Alexander said Patel was the main target of the investigation. He owns or has a stake in several of the stores authorities searched Thursday afternoon, Alexander said. The Internal Revenue Service is helping authorities connect him to the other businesses. Alexander said an undercover agent bought two cases of pseudoephedrine pills from Patel for $4,000 Thursday, with promise to buy more. The agent left an additional $2,000 as a down payment. * Huston works at a convenience store owned by Patel on South Van Buren, authorities said. He allegedly sold pseudoephedrine pills to undercover officers on several occasions. The five suspects facing state counts are charged with unlawful sale of precursor substances. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. * Kim, 38, allegedly sold pseudoephedrine to undercover officers on three occasions - twice at a now-closed convenience store on North Van Buren in 2000 and Aug. 2 at a store in Lahoma, according to court documents. The transactions involved 59 bottles of 60-milligram pills, which sold for nearly $500. An undercover OBN agent asked Kim if he would be interested in trading methamphetamine for pills. Kim declined, telling the officer, "I only sell them," according to the affidavit. * Joon Tag Cho, 34, is charged with two counts of illegally selling pseudoephedrine. Two undercover task force officers approached Cho at the smoke shop on East Garriott in September 2000. Cho limited purchases to five bottles at a time per person, but the officers went back and forth between the convenience store and smoke shop until they had accumulated 60 bottles, the affidavit states. Officers purchased another 40 bottles the same way Feb. 7, 2001, according to the affidavit. * McFalls, 68, also faces two counts of selling pseudoephedrine to undercover agents who said they intended to use it to manufacture methamphetamine. On Aug. 20, 2002, an undercover Enid police detective asked about buying pseudoephedrine after noticing none on display in Mac's Mart, his affidavit states. McFalls took five bottles from behind the counter and only let the detective buy that amount, according to the affidavit, although McFalls sold an additional five bottles to the detective when he returned to the store a few minutes later. McFalls told the detective he was afraid of being fined by authorities for selling too much pseudoephedrine, the affidavit states. He said he limits his pill orders so his vender won't alert authorities. * Young Tag Cho, 30, surrendered to authorities Friday on two counts of unlawfully selling drug precursors. He allegedly sold 20 bottles of pseudoephedrine to two undercover officers Sept. 28, 2000, forcing them to move between Mac's Mart No. 2 and the Downtown Smoke Shop to complete the $260 purchase, the affidavit state. He only sold them 10 bottles at each store. One of the officers spoke to Cho about stocking a vitamin blend that could be used to cut his methamphetamine after he cooked it, according to the affidavit. Last month, Cho allegedly sold eight bottles of the precursor substance to an Enid police detective and OBN agent, the affidavit states. He refused to sell them more than four bottles each, saying he had other customers and needed to keep some pills in stock for them, according to the affidavit. * Bison resident Davis, 33, allegedly sold pseudoephed-rine pills to two undercover officers in April 2000. She is a clerk at Mac's Mart No. 1. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth