Dammnnn again. So the dogs that hit on that package, are they trained to hit on syncans, or the herbs themselves?

ST. GEORGE – Federal law enforcement officials unveiled a criminal complaint Wednesday alleging a synthetic drug trafficking ring with global reach was headquartered in St. George.

Fourteen Utahns have been arrested on a charge of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance (Spice), eight of them in Washington County, as part of what the Drug Enforcement Administration is labeling its largest synthetic drug take-down in history.

“The complaint alleges that this organization manufactured here in Washington County and distributed throughout the United States thousands of pounds of Spice and the proceeds garnered from that distribution totaled up to $12 million,” assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lund said during a news conference at Purgatory Correctional Facility.

Lund said the potential street value of the Spice mentioned in the federal complaint was more than $17 million.

Those suspects booked into the Washington County Jail on Wednesday include Joseph Paul Givogre, 42, of Washington City; Alicia Kay Brandom, 31, and Brian Christopher Merrill, 27, both of Hurricane; and Buck Thomas Andersen, 33, Jennifer Barlow, 22, Gary Dee Jolley, 58, Richard Lynn Lewis, 61, and Malin Anthony Pavelka, 34, all of St. George.

Also identified as being from the St. George area are codefendants Joshua Davis, 37, and Curtis McOsker, 40.

Officers also reported surveillance on a Hurricane warehouse allegedly used to house drug-making materials.

Codefendants from the Salt Lake City area were named as David Flores, 32, James Hardwick, 27, David Carter, age unknown, and Becky Young, 36.

Merrill, Davis and Andersen are identified as the main operators of the trafficking operation. A news release issued by the U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah states the trio deposited more than $5.6 million in suspected drug proceeds into various bank accounts under their control from April 2011 to March 2013.

McOsker and Brandom allegedly were found at a Crest View Drive residence in Santa Clara allegedly rented by Merrill as a Spice manufacturing lab when Washington County Drug Task Force officers served a search warrant in March, according to the federal complaint.

The investigation began in December 2012, however, after law enforcement officers in Illinois contacted the St. George DEA office with information about a Spice investigation taking place in Illinois, with evidence that the drugs at several smoke shops there had been sent from St. George.

Lund said that unlike marijuana, which Spice is designed to mimic, the synthetic drug materials used to manufacture the Spice originate in China and “have no quality control.”

“Across the globe, law enforcement has worked together to target the importation of these drugs,” said DEA Special Agent In Charge Barbra Roach. “Spice is extremely harmful and totally unregulated. … Those that have used these synthetic drugs suffer a lot of effects. Some of them are as mild as vomiting, anxiety, seizures and hallucinations. Designer drugs also cause significant organ damage and overdose deaths.”

This is how they justify their jobs I guess.  Each DEA agent makes between 80 and 120 grand to make one or two arrests a year, so they all swarm in on something like this.  The little villanizing lines at the end are the trademark statements.  I’m surprised they didnt say they are doing this to prevent children from dying to to stop terrorists.

Anyone know who this is/was?  Obviously the facility was DHL in the video, I meant who got taken down in Utah?

Since when, and especially in the past couple years, has the government cared about what is legal?  A lot of laws are only there to supress actions of the citizens.  Laws do not restrain the police or so called enforcement officers, and the law does not protect people from the government.  OK, maybe in court, but when the government care what happens in court?

I understand that if they want you busted, you will be busted,  but why dabble in banned chems? Russian roulette is a stupid game if you don’t want to lose.

I understand that if they want you busted, you will be busted,  but why dabble in banned chems? Russian roulette is a stupid game if you don’t want to lose.

Banned or not, they will see the same thing. All will be confiscated at the time, no matter what.
It will only be a long time later that they don’t charge you for a so called "unbanned" substance, and have a slew of other charges to take it’s place or stack on top.

Look at the MNG convictions.
He was compliant.  :wacked:
Got him for lot of stuff, including "analogues", which most would disagree prior to this last ban.

It’s not as easy as staying "up-to-date", because if they get you, you will be so buried in expenses and confiscations, that it won’t be worth fighting for what they have already taken.

$0.02

Thanks for the post, good read.  Like SSF said it does not matter what is on the herbs it is all illegal in their eyes. 

When you are a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.  I remember in the 70’s when they busted people for growing shrooms, they weighed the dirt and boxes too,
to come up with a street value of 11 million dollars from a small closet full of shrooms.

Thanks for posting this article.  I found it really helpful.

When you are a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.  I remember in the 70’s when they busted people for growing shrooms, they weighed the dirt and boxes too,
to come up with a street value of 11 million dollars from a small closet full of shrooms.

Yeah, and here we are in 2013 and shroomin’ is still happening! idk, that all could be another psyops to dissuade people who still DO that bathsalt stuff.  :cokesniff  :wacked: That shit really gets me; those bills they keep passing, taking more and more FUN out of the equation. I think they will continue until the people STAND UP for themselves. That’s what folks used to do. Now with the innernet we can achieve maximum solidarity. A movement for freedom.  :dance  yeah, right… :weedpass: :weedspin :smokin: Thanks, though, good topic. 

They are getting Halo maker for conspiracy to make synthetic mj. Since the chems used were legal at the time they charged him with this other obscure law to fight analogues. His stuff was ur144 no analog. I have said before what you get is illegal in their eyes. Even the natties. In the end they may not charge you for that. But u do have something that is supposed to be like mj. They got halo for that also. There is nothing legal if they say so. It is also nice to be charged storage fees on top of everything else.thats a lot of fees after years of storage waiting trial.

Be safe folks, stay / lay low.

  For those of you without priors I can tell you the Law could care less just what might or might not be illegal.
      Nowadays the law is all about whatever the cop thinks,Chances are very good if you are busted that you will
never even receive One Oppertunity to tell Your actual story to anyone apart from your lawyer. The state& feds don’t
care. Used to be a cop would care & mebbe give a guy a break, but it ain’t that way any longer, not with clockwork orange
bullies in charge of the police. Tho I have rejected this advice from my family in the past I will relate it to you.
    Become more like the lowly mouse, small & fast -they can quickly hide and they don’t need much to survive

:goodpost Used to be you were innocent until proven guilty; now it’s the other way around. You will be bankrupt and incarcerated before your innocence has a snowball’s chance in hell. Then you can try to regroup and recoup…what a joke.