Pubdate: Sat, 10 Dec 2005
Source: Courier-Journal, The (Louisville, KY)
Copyright: 2005 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Deborah Yetter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

10 MEMBERS OF MOTORCYCLE CLUB CHARGED WITH DRUG CONSPIRACY

Federal Agents Think Meth Was Smuggled From Mexico

Ten members of the Iron Horsemen motorcycle club -- nine from Kentucky
- -- face charges of conspiring to traffic in methamphetamine that
federal agents believe was smuggled from Mexico. The 10 men, who were
indicted Tuesday, may have distributed hundreds of pounds of the
illegal stimulant valued at millions of dollars in the past two years,
according to U.S. Attorney David Huber.

Tony King, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Louisville, said yesterday that such cases may
become more common as small meth labs disappear because of laws
limiting access to meth ingredients. Large quantities of the illegal
stimulant manufactured in Mexico and the Southwest are being brought
into Kentucky, King said. "That's the big battle we're going to be
fighting right now -- the return to smuggling," he said. "We are
seeing a dramatic decrease in 'tweaker labs,' the mom and pop ones."

Such labs -- named after meth users who "tweak," or stay high, for
days on the highly addictive drug -- were growing fast in Kentucky in
recent years, King said. Small meth labs are often set up in a home or
outbuilding and use easy-to-find materials, such as glass canning jars
and cold pills that contain pseudoephedrine -- a key ingredient in
meth production. But this year, the Kentucky legislature passed a law
to make it harder to get over-the-counter pills with pseudoephedrine.

The 10 defendants arrested this week were being held in federal
custody yesterday. They are scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 17. They
include eight men from Western Kentucky, one from Northern Kentucky
and one from Southern Indiana. The maximum penalties they face are
life in prison and $4 million in fines. The case was investigated by
the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the
FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, Kentucky and Indiana state police, and
several local law-enforcement agencies. King declined to give details
about the investigation but said the trend in meth production is away
from small labs and toward much bigger operations. "The meth is made
in bulk quantity," he said. "They're professionally run organizations."
Prior to June, the state had no restriction on the purchase of
over-the-counter medicine containing pseudoephedrine. Now the drugs can be
sold only by a store that has a pharmacy and must be kept in a secure place.
Customers must show a photo ID and sign a log to buy them. Buyers are
limited to nine grams -- or about 300 tablets -- a month.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin