Advertisement
www.insidebayarea.com/ci_11568039
Huge Ecstasy bust in West Oakland
By Harry Harris
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 01/27/2009 07:30:36 PM PST
Updated: 01/28/2009 06:55:33 AM PST
In one of the largest Ecstasy seizures ever in California, 45 kilograms of the drug with a minimum street value of almost $2 million were found at a West Oakland house Friday during a series of law enforcement raids from Willits to the East Bay, authorities said Tuesday.
Besides the powder form of the drug found in Oakland, a huge manufacturing lab was dismantled in Willits in Mendocino County, and at least nine people, including the ringleader suspect from El Cerrito, his brother and two Emeryville residents, were arrested.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown said the suspects were part of a "dangerous drug ring" that operated Ecstasy labs around Northern California. Brown said the ring "posed a threat to
Related
Besides the Ecstasy powder, authorities found 28 pounds of hallucinogenic mushrooms, 30 pounds of marijuana and $531,000 in cash at the West Oakland house in the 1000 block of 39th Street. At a warehouse on Yerba Buena Avenue in Emeryville, authorities found 50 marijuana plants and what is suspected to be LSD in powder and liquid form.
State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement Special Agent in Charge John George said Tuesday the powder seized could be used to make at least 88,000 Ecstasy pills that could sell for $15 to $40 each. He said the mushrooms had a street value of at least $156,000 and the marijuana at least $90,000.
Arrested at the Oakland house were Leon Haskell, 34, and Tappie Dufresne,
37, of Emeryville.
The series of raids culminated an investigation that began in November. The state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement initially teamed with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office after an anonymous tip alerted agents to a possible lab operating in Mendocino County.
Agents monitored the site and identified the cook as Jonathan Passel, 46, of El Cerrito, whom George said is the ringleader suspect. He was followed to several locations, including the Oakland residence, residences in Willits, Redwood Valley and El Cerrito, and warehouses in San Rafael and Emeryville, agents said.
Based on surveillance and other evidence, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agents, the West Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force and seven other Northern California police agencies served nine warrants Friday in four counties.
Passel was arrested at what police say is the Mendocino County lab site.
Agents there seized a .45-caliber pistol, thousands of dollars worth of chemicals, commercial-grade laboratory glassware, and more than 100 gallons of toxic, poisonous and flammable liquids and solids. Hazardous chemicals and laboratory equipment filled 40 large barrels.
Paul Passel, 64, Jonathan Passel's brother, was arrested at a house in the 1800 block of Key Boulevard in El Cerrito but was cited at the scene and released due to medical issues. Agents seized 11/2 pounds of marijuana and lab glassware at the residence.
None of the suspects would talk to authorities. They were booked at Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of a variety of charges, including manufacturing and possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy, authorities said.
Huge Ecstasy bust in West Oakland
By Harry Harris
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 01/27/2009 07:30:36 PM PST
Updated: 01/28/2009 06:55:33 AM PST
In one of the largest Ecstasy seizures ever in California, 45 kilograms of the drug with a minimum street value of almost $2 million were found at a West Oakland house Friday during a series of law enforcement raids from Willits to the East Bay, authorities said Tuesday.
Besides the powder form of the drug found in Oakland, a huge manufacturing lab was dismantled in Willits in Mendocino County, and at least nine people, including the ringleader suspect from El Cerrito, his brother and two Emeryville residents, were arrested.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown said the suspects were part of a "dangerous drug ring" that operated Ecstasy labs around Northern California. Brown said the ring "posed a threat to
Related
Besides the Ecstasy powder, authorities found 28 pounds of hallucinogenic mushrooms, 30 pounds of marijuana and $531,000 in cash at the West Oakland house in the 1000 block of 39th Street. At a warehouse on Yerba Buena Avenue in Emeryville, authorities found 50 marijuana plants and what is suspected to be LSD in powder and liquid form.
State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement Special Agent in Charge John George said Tuesday the powder seized could be used to make at least 88,000 Ecstasy pills that could sell for $15 to $40 each. He said the mushrooms had a street value of at least $156,000 and the marijuana at least $90,000.
Arrested at the Oakland house were Leon Haskell, 34, and Tappie Dufresne,
37, of Emeryville.
The series of raids culminated an investigation that began in November. The state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement initially teamed with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office after an anonymous tip alerted agents to a possible lab operating in Mendocino County.
Agents monitored the site and identified the cook as Jonathan Passel, 46, of El Cerrito, whom George said is the ringleader suspect. He was followed to several locations, including the Oakland residence, residences in Willits, Redwood Valley and El Cerrito, and warehouses in San Rafael and Emeryville, agents said.
Based on surveillance and other evidence, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agents, the West Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force and seven other Northern California police agencies served nine warrants Friday in four counties.
Passel was arrested at what police say is the Mendocino County lab site.
Agents there seized a .45-caliber pistol, thousands of dollars worth of chemicals, commercial-grade laboratory glassware, and more than 100 gallons of toxic, poisonous and flammable liquids and solids. Hazardous chemicals and laboratory equipment filled 40 large barrels.
Paul Passel, 64, Jonathan Passel's brother, was arrested at a house in the 1800 block of Key Boulevard in El Cerrito but was cited at the scene and released due to medical issues. Agents seized 11/2 pounds of marijuana and lab glassware at the residence.
None of the suspects would talk to authorities. They were booked at Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of a variety of charges, including manufacturing and possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy, authorities said.
posted by:
|
Maryland
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Unsu...
Re: the other Oakland industry
Thu, January 29, 2009 - 10:14 AMwww.cognitiveliberty.org/press...re.htm
www.convictionfree.com/about.htm
if anyone knows these people,please send along the info above to them (i can't find a way, and i have been trying) this is the man who might be able to help them.
our prayers and love are with you in your difficult time -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Thu, January 29, 2009 - 11:43 AM>>>"our prayers and love are with you in your difficult time ">>>
Not mine.
Too bad they are in the hands of the state and its fucked up, clueless approach on crime is gonna go full flower on them, but drug businesses (especially ones of this size) are havens for some of the worst of humanity. Regardless of your view on personal liberties and the "drug war", you don't know the nature of this group of people.
Personally, and in all likelihood, I probably would want them on the other side of a defensible perimeter and clear field of fire.
But who knows? Maybe they are a band of valiant, beautiful, loving psychonauts changing the world and funding a free nursery school.
Or maybe they are a vicious nest of hooker-killing junkies working for the Russian mob. -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sat, January 31, 2009 - 2:41 PMpsychedelics = violence, hmm?
oh i forgot, ecstasy is meth, or whatever -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 11:42 AMlucrative markets for illegal substances = violence over who gets to supply the illegal substances -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 12:03 PMDon,
They used to discard solvents and and such required for the manufacture of things like Meth.......but those days are long gone. The paperwork and oversight involved in disposal of organic solvents etc are unbelievable.
Typically the supplies for manufacture are stolen or otherwise illegally obtained.
I have some associates with the EPA who tell me some of the houses involved in Meth production are so toxic that when discovered they have to be razed...........
Anyway, for better or worse those are the only jobs coming to Oaktown. The nanny state pushes legit employers out out out.......... -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 5:35 PMis there meth in oakland?
i grew up in an area with HELLA meth, that shit is even more annoying than cocaine
biotech is an interesting line of thought, i dont know about these guys getting enough out of the garbage to be making 45 kilos of that shit tho. but an interesting line of thought
-
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 5:31 PMplease indicate any violence concerning ecstasy? -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 5:51 PMthere is considerable e related violence in oakland as it's mixed with coke/crack.
sold as thizz.. or something like that. -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 7:02 PMwell as far as i know this was concerning the powder form, being perpetrated by old white dudes
in the powder form its typically sold in the powder form all the way down the line
thizz is pills, and as far as i know thizz comes on boats from canada. this is all (rap) hearsay of course. but... -
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 7:07 PMTHizz is an Oakland hyphy cultural term for mixing e with coke/crack.
it's not old white guy terms. it's oakland street culture.
Getting back to the original post. I doubt this bust was mixing it up with black oakland drug culture. it is heavy on psychedelics and has a decidedly different audience. different market segment but it's still part of the same underground industry. -
-
This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 10:41 PMactually on further inspection i doubt leon and tappie are white people names
-
-
-
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 9:49 PMplease indicate any violence concerning ecstasy?>>>
Would you like to meet a friend of a Russian friend in the laboratory commodity exchange business??
No kidding.
Fucker has murdered in 4 countries and is wanted in only 3.
He got my name wrong when we met and I didnh't correct him, if you know what I mean.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Re: the other Oakland industry
Mon, February 2, 2009 - 4:22 AMYou know that there may be a connection with local biotech companies. Not that they are involvedm but they do throw away the kind of stuff an e lab would need. -
-
I posted this in the burningman tribe
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 9:59 PMbut it's more relevant to Oakland:
Decriminalizing and/or legalizing pot cultivation/distribution/consumption would really add to the bottom line of any city.
In Baltimore, a study was done and concluded the 'informal economy' was valued at something like 900 million dollars annually. That's just the drug trade. Not prostitution or white collar crimes that go under prosecuted but still can be considered an 'informal market'. Oakland probably has about the same economies of scale when it comes to drugs- maybe different drugs- more exctacy than heroin?
Anyway, the part that makes me curious is this:
8.25% of 900 million dollars in sales is 72 million dollars in sales tax revenue. That would be for the county. How much county sales tax revenue is sent back to the cities in alameda for cops, road maintenence, BART, AC transit, etc?
Baltimore made a very public commitment to attract and maintain the 'accomodation and food service sales' business in it's city. That's estimated at about 1BN annually. They committed to 305 million in public bonds for it.
Here's the article:
www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp
The article makes the contrast, and says, look- the drugs are here, they have always been here, they are not going away any time soon. you spend millions of dollars attracting legit business, and you spend billions more supressing non legit business. just tax it.
So, imagine taxing pot sales at 10 or even 15%, on top of sales tax. That tax would go towards treatment, prevention, enforcement, etc. which means the population is paying for that prevention and enforcement, not the taxpayers via sales tax or property tax, or Business Improvement districts.
Start with pot. Not the least of which is this 'unrelated benefits' - there would be less illegal farming in our national forests and BLM lands that are not regulated in terms of pesticides, road building, hunting, trapping, and high impact camping. growing pot has a very high impact on the land- as much as a monocrop of corn or soybeans, but it's completely underground so no one knows what its being fertilized with. or how the workers are treated. The majority of farms are not run by hippies in Humbodlt hydroponic warehouses. Our national forests are abused, migrant workers from mexico and central america are paid (poorly) to camp in these 'farms' as lookouts. -
-
Re: I posted this in the burningman tribe
Mon, February 16, 2009 - 6:18 AMit's a fun thought, but it's also politically impossible in the current climate of the country. there's a puritanical bent in this country that's very hard to overcome.
-
-
