Rape Drug Bust Targets Web Dealers

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a major crackdown on Internet drug traffickers Thursday, disclosing that 115 dealers of the "date rape" drug GHB had been arrested in St. Louis and 83 other cities in the United States and Canada.

"This takedown is a dose of harsh reality for drug traffickers who seek to exploit the vast markets and anonymity of cyberspace," Ashcroft said.

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson said that Internet traffickers "can expect to face the same justice the old-fashion drug dealers face."

"With millions of people having quick and easy access to the Internet, the buying and selling of deadly drugs and chemicals from the Web should not, and will not, be as simple as point-and-click," Hutchinson said.

The DEA has documented 72 deaths from the drug and its derivatives, which are sold over the Internet to teenagers and young adults by dealers who operate their own Web sites. The drugs are delivered by mail.

One of those deaths was of 15-year-old Samantha Reid of Detroit. At the news conference Thursday, her mother Judy Clark pleaded with parents to be more aware of GHB.

"They don't have to be attending raves to fall victim to GHB," she said.

Her daughter went to the movies Jan. 16, 1999, with two of her girlfriends and two male friends from high school. The boys offered Samantha alcoholic beverages.

"She refused them, she kept asking for pop (soda)," Clark said. "It was at that point they slipped GHB into her pop. Samantha drank her pop, and as a result died from it."

The boys are now serving 5½-to-15 years in prison for the manslaughter death of Samantha.

Ashcroft and Hutchinson announced that the wide-ranging Operation Web Slinger encompassed primary investigations in St. Louis; Detroit and San Diego, Calif.; Mobile, Ala. and Sparta, Tenn.; Buffalo, N.Y. and Quebec City, Canada.

In St. Louis, federal grand jurors on Sept. 12 charged Cassandra Harvey, 53, of Festus, and her son, Joshua Harvey, 23, of Herculaneum, each with one count of conspiring to distribute 1,4-butanediol, a GHB chemical cousin that turns to GHB in the body. The Harveys, arrested Wednesday, also are accused of possessing the questioned chemical with plans to distribute it.

The government alleges that the Harveys ran an Internet company known as Miracle Cleaning Products that bought and sold large amounts of butanediol to buyers in 41 states and eight countries. The government said it has seized more than 2,000 gallons of butanediol and $300,000 cash.

"These are products that are coming to your house," said Judy Clark. "Your children are able to buy them over the Internet. They're being told they are a safe alternative to alcohol."

The Harveys remained jailed Thursday without bond, pending a federal detention hearing Monday in St. Louis.

Butanediol is used as an industrial solvent and is also included in supplements sold under names such as Thunder Nectar, InnerG and Zen. Butanediol is used to make polyurethane, Spandex, moisturizers and legal drugs.

At the news conference authorities announced that as part of the nationwide probe, they had conducted enforcement operations in over 80 U.S. cities with drug seizures that could have yielded more than 25 million doses of GHB and its derivatives.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Customs Service and the FBI also participated.

Education efforts by law enforcement agencies and the government have been aimed at warning women about predators who could spike their drinks with the drug.

GHB is a mixture of common industrial chemicals that Congress outlawed 2½ years ago. The drug and its derivatives GBL and 1,4 BD act as central nervous system depressants and cause drowsiness, dizziness, nausea and loss of inhibition.

People who use GHB refer to it as "G" and "Liquid X."

The substance also is abused as a muscle growth hormone.

"Young men are being coerced into using this drug in gyms. They're being told it's a safe alternative to alcohol, that it was sold in health food stores and that it's used by body-builders," said Clark. "And it's taking down in numbers that are unimaginable."