Source: Seattle Times (WA) Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Pubdate: Thu, 23 July, 1998 Author: Linda Stewart Ball, The Dallas Morning News DRUG CONSPIRACY TARGETED IN HEROIN DEATHS OF FOUR TEENS PLANO, Texas - Twenty-nine suspected drug dealers have been indicted under a special federal conspiracy law in connection with the heroin-related deaths of four teenagers with ties to Plano, officials said yesterday. A federal grand jury in the nearby town of Sherman issued the 36-count indictment. It alleges that the 29 targeted Plano as a new market for heroin. The defendants knew that the drug was killing young people but continued selling it to them, the indictment charges. "The defendants intentionally, in a very calculated and cold-blooded way, distributed" heroin and cocaine, said U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford of the Eastern District of Texas in announcing the indictments yesterday. Although some of the defendants have been named in previous indictments on charges of heroin delivery on a single occasion, the latest indictment charges all 29 as a group in activities that include everything from smuggling black-tar heroin into the United States to selling it on the streets of Plano. Because they were charged as a group, the suspected dealers can be prosecuted together, and the possible punishments are much more severe, given the resulting deaths, Bradford said. All but five of the 29 could face a maximum term of life in prison because of a rarely used sentencing-enhancement provision under federal law that was not available at the state level. "This is the first time we've used this provision of the law in the Eastern District to specifically link drug dealing to drug-overdose deaths," Bradford said. The Eastern District includes 43 counties across Texas. "To date, throughout the U.S., something to this degree has never been attempted," said Paul Villaescusa, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The indictment was the result of a yearlong investigation begun by the Plano Police Department and expanded to include a task force of federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies. At least 18 youths with Plano ties have died heroin-related deaths since September 1994, authorities said. Police traditionally categorize drug-related deaths as accidental, due to overdose, and consider the case closed, Villaescusa said. But Plano went beyond that, he said. In June 1997, Plano Police Chief Bruce Glasscock assigned a homicide detective to investigate the deaths along with the narcotics unit. Although the chief said he wanted to pursue murder charges against the drug dealers, he was thwarted by state laws. Unless a drug dealer actually injects or otherwise administers the fatal dose, he or she cannot be charged with homicide under state laws, the chief said. But the federal sentencing enhancement might be a way around that roadblock, authorities said. Bradford declined to reveal the evidence that directly links the indicted people to the deaths of four Plano teenagers. The indictment alleges that the dealers imported the heroin and cocaine from Mexico and distributed large quantities to individuals and through a house in East Plano, authorities said. All but two of those indicted are in custody. One is in a rehabilitation center and will be transferred to jail; another remains at large. Lowell Hill, whose 19-year-old son, Rob, died of a heroin overdose on Aug. 20, 1997, said he was pleased with officials' quick action. "We just don't want other people to die," he said, stressing that he and his wife were in favor of drug testing for children as early as the fourth grade. Jean Aguanno, whose son, Jay, 19, died of a heroin overdose on July 7 after having been drug-free for eight months, said that she was in favor of strong prosecution but that it came too late for her family. "I kind of wish all this had happened a year ago so whoever was able to supply Jay that night was already in jail," she said. - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)