Pubdate: Wed, 15 May 2002
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobileregister/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: RON COLQUITT

DRUG BUST NETS SUBSTANCE THAT MAY BE OPIUM

Two Men Arrested In Pensacola With 126 Grams Of Black, Tar-Like
Substance And Drug Paraphernalia

Two Florida men were arrested in Pensacola after they were caught smoking 
what one of them said was opium, authorities said.

Pensacola police Lt. Chip Simmons said 126 grams of the black, tar-like 
substance and drug paraphernalia were confiscated Friday during the search 
of a car downtown. He said the substance is being tested to determine if it 
is opium or the opium derivative black tar heroin.

Simmons, who heads the department's narcotics unit, said he has been on the 
force for eight years and could not recall a drug bust that netted either 
opium or heroin. Finding either on the streets of Pensacola would be quite 
unusual, he said.

The tests to determine what the substance is are expected to take two 
months to get results, Simmons said.

"It's just an equal chance that it will be one or the other, either opium 
or black-tar heroin," Simmons said.

Ronald Thomas Baden, 22, of Fort Walton Beach was charged with trafficking 
a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of 
marijuana under 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia, Simmons said.

Peter James Sherbert, 21, of Pensacola was hit with the same charges except 
trafficking, the lieutenant said.

The two men were arrested after police saw them walking across a parking 
lot "passing around and smoking narcotics," Simmons said.

Baden told the officer who arrested him that the substance they were 
smoking was opium, Simmons said.

Two balls similar to the ball of tar-like substance they were smoking were 
found in Baden's pocket, the lieutenant said.

Special agent Allen Hancock of the Mobile Drug Enforcement Agency office 
said if the substance confiscated proves to be opium, it would be unusual. 
The agents stationed in Mobile cover the lower half of Alabama. Hancock has 
been at the Mobile office since 1987.

"We have worked heroin cases in the past, but not strictly opium cases," 
the agent said. "We have worked black tar heroin cases, people bringing 
Mexican black tar heroin into Mobile, but that was in the late'80s."

Lt. Bruce Lee, who heads Mobile County Sheriff's Department narcotics and 
vice unit, said if the substance turns out to be opium, the case would be 
unique for this area.

"Actually smoking opium, I have not seen it in my career, not here in 
Mobile," said Lee, who has been with the Sheriff's Department for 14 years, 
with eight of those spent in the narcotics unit.

He said heroin use in the Mo bile area also is very rare and he could only 
recall one heroin arrest in the last three years.
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