Pubdate: Wed, 10 Aug 2005
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2005 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Clair Johnson, Of The Gazette Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

WOMEN DESCRIBE HUGE PROFITS FROM DEALING METH

Two young women told a federal jury Tuesday how they helped run a
conspiracy that brought high-quality methamphetamine to Billings from
Washington state.

Gwen Black, of Washington, who seemed mature beyond her 19 years,
calmly and directly testified how, when she was 17, she and her
then-31-year-old boyfriend, Edwin Santiago, picked up shipments of
meth from Martin Garcia in Mount Vernon, Wash., brought it to Billings
for resale and sent back thousands of dollars in cash.

Black had pleaded guilty earlier to a related charge.

On one occasion, Black said, she had her mother unwittingly drive two
pounds of meth to Billings hidden in her car. Her mother returned to
Washington with $70,000 cash stashed in a pillowcase, again without
her knowledge, Black testified.

Erin Zindler, 21, of Laurel, who pleaded guilty last week to a
conspiracy count, told how she and her boyfriend, Ronald E. Smith, 34,
of Torrence, Calif., obtained meth from Black and Santiago, now 33,
and sold and used the drug.

The testimony came in the second day of the trial of Garcia, 40, and
co-defendant Robert W. Green, 31, of Stockton, Calif. Both are charged
with drug trafficking crimes in a 25-count indictment. Eleven
co-defendants were charged in the same indictment; two others were
charged separately.

All but four co-defendants have pleaded guilty, and many are
testifying against Garcia and Green.

Defense attorneys say Santiago was the main supplier and is a liar.
They also attacked the credibility of co-defendants, saying they are
cooperating with the government to get reductions in their sentences.

If convicted, Garcia and Green face minimum mandatory sentences of 10
years to life in prison and $4 million in fines.

Black said she and Santiago, who has pleaded guilty in the case, made
trips to Washington in 2003 to pick up half-pound to 2-pound
quantities of crystal meth, a nearly pure form of the drug, from Garcia.

Black personally handed cash to Garcia, who has an auto service shop,
for the first half-pound, she said.

Black and Santiago could distribute a pound of meth in Billings within
a couple of days, "maybe a week," she said. Then they would order more
meth from Garcia, she said.

Garcia would front them the meth - a pound for $16,000 - which they
would resell for a $30,000 profit after paying Garcia, Black said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Seykora asked Black where she kept the
cash.

"We didn't keep it," she said. "We spent it like it was
nothing."

Black and Santiago had a safe for Garcia's money at a co-defendant's
house, she said. The rest of the money went to buy cellular phones and
cars, including a Ford Expedition used to transport meth to Billings,
she said.

Black and co-defendants even had a photograph taken of the proceeds
during a stay at the Red Roof Inn in Billings, she said. The
photograph, entered as evidence, showed Black, Santiago, Zindler and
Smith smiling on a bed with cash spread out before them. "We had money
all over the bed," Black said, estimating that the cash totaled $50,000.

Before Black's mother visited her in September 2003, she had her
mother take her car to Garcia's auto shop for servicing where two
pounds of meth was hidden inside, she said. "Me and Ron Smith pulled
it out of the passenger wheel well" at a co-defendant's residence in
Billings, she said.

Before her mother returned to Washington a few days later, Black said,
she vacuum-sealed $70,000 in cash and hid it in a pillowcase in the
trunk of her mother's car without her knowledge. Black told Garcia
where the money was hidden and he retrieved it when her stepfather
brought the car back in for servicing, she said.

The meth was shipped in various containers. One time, a half-pound of
meth was stuffed in the bottom of a raisin container and topped with
raisins, Black said.

Another time, Garcia brought meth to Billings in a laundry detergent
box, she said.

During a run to Missoula with Santiago and others to pick up more meth
sent by Garcia, Black said, they also picked up a handgun and a scale.
Black told the jury the gun was "for protection" because word on the
street was that "we were taking away customers."

Black also told how she kept a drug ledger and phone numbers of drug
contacts in a notebook, which was entered as evidence.

Black was arrested along with others in October 2003 at the Red Roof
Inn in Billings. She pleaded guilty to a state charge and was
sentenced to probation until she is 25. Black said federal
investigators told her she could have been charged as an adult because
she was so close to being 18 and that she would have faced 25 years in
prison.

Black maintained on cross-examination that Garcia was the supplier and
that she and Santiago had five or six people working for them in Billings.

Zindler, a Laurel High School graduate and mother of a 4?-month-old
baby, said she met Black about the time her boyfriend, Smith, began
buying meth from Santiago.

Zindler and Smith bought an ounce or two of meth every day, sold it
and spent the money on more drugs, she said.

Zindler smoked and injected the drug and once stayed awake for 15 days
from the drug, she said.

Zindler said she stopped using meth when she became
pregnant.

The trial continues today with U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull
presiding. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake