USA - eBay purchase results in Estacsy arrests

[DeleteriousEffects]

Just another reason to think twice....

eBay Purchase Results In Boulder Ecstasy Arrests

POSTED: 1:44 pm MDT August 22, 2007

BOULDER, Colo. -- Boulder police have shut down a possible Ecstasy operation have being tipped by a federal agent to suspicious activity on eBay, the Boulder Daily Camera reported Wednesday.
The Camera said the agent, who scans the Internet looking for signs of purchases of materials that can be used to make drugs, informed Boulder police.
Twenty-nine-year-old Carl Dubois and 41-year-old Debra Cerio were arrested on suspicion of buying materials to make ecstasy.

Police raided their home last week and allegedly found enough material to manufacture 80,000 doses of the drug. They also found the email used to open a PayPal account to buy the material was freebasing@hotmail.com. Freebasing is a drug term.
Cerio said the couple is innocent. Friends said Dubois had the lab equipment because he's an aspiring chemical engineer.
Both posted bond and were released.
The newspaper story on the search and arrest was generating a large number of comments Wednesday. Some blamed law enforcement for invasion of the couple's privacy and others said that using a drug term in your e-mail address was not very smart.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...59/detail.html

Warrant: eBay activity led to Boulder ecstasy lab bust

By Vanessa Miller (Contact)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A federal agent assigned to troll the Internet for drug-manufacturing purchases tipped off investigators to a potential ecstasy lab in a south Boulder home after tracing suspicious eBay transactions to the house.

Carl Dubois, 29, is suspected of using an online PayPal account to buy thousands of dollars' worth of chemicals, laboratory equipment and "essential oils" commonly used to manufacture ecstasy, according to a search warrant made public Tuesday.

Dubois' suspected eBay activity includes a $2,595 purchase from Trung Nguyen, "a Canadian citizen who has previously sold sassafras oil," investigators said. Sassafras oil contains large amounts of safrole, which is used to make ecstasy, according to the warrant.

"Although many of the items Dubois purchased can be used for other purposes, when used together in the proper quantities and procedures, these items can be used in the illicitmanufacture of ecstasy," a detective wrote in the warrant.

Dubois and Debra Cerio, 41, were arrested last week after police raided their south Boulder home at 720 S. 46th St., which backs up to Summit Middle School. Police said they found enough chemicals to produce up to 80,000 doses of ecstasy.

Both have been charged with multiple drug charges, including conspiring to manufacture, distribute or posses a controlled substance.

Dubois left jail Tuesday after posting a $60,000 bond. Cerio has been out of jail for a week after posting a $25,000 bond. Neither could be reached for comment.

Officers who dismantled the lab said there's no indication the two sold any doses of the drug, adding that the suspected lab was caught early in its inception.

Cerio, who police said is Dubois' girlfriend, is suspected of being involved in the ecstasy lab because her name is on a credit card statement for several purchases from chemical-supply businesses, according to the warrant.

Friends, though, have said Dubois had the lab equipment because he's an aspiring chemical engineering student. Cerio has publicly declared the couple's innocence.

A federal agent who monitors the purchase of sassafras oil, lab glassware and chemicals through administrative subpoenas began tracking Dubois' activity on eBay last year.

In July 2006, Dubois used the PayPal account freebasing@hotmail.com to buy vacuum pumps, glass beakers, flasks and chemicals. On Jan. 17, 18 and 20, he bought three flasks, a gas regulator and $879 worth of "essential oils," the search warrant said.

Officers said they confirmed that Dubois received items purchased online through the "freebasing" account by collecting trash from outside the south Boulder residence.

Investigators determined Dubois probably wasn't taking the chemicals he bought to a lab because his "normal mode of transportation is a motorcycle."

"I believe it is unlikely that Dubois would be transporting chemicals and laboratory equipment from his residence, where they are received, to another location on his motorcycle," the warrant said.

Over the past two years, the federal agent who informed Boulder County investigators about the possible ecstasy lab has provided various agencies with information that has led to the discovery and dismantling of more than three dozen methamphetamine and ecstasy labs, the warrant said.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007...agent-buys-on/
.....
The interesting thing is that the couple came to authorities attention back in July, 2006, but the arrests didn't happen until August, 2007. What took the authorities that long? And why hadn't the couple managed to make any during that time? If the point of these investigations is to "save" all of us, that's a lot of time to distribute a lot of ecstacsy.

[radiometer]

EBAY?! Give these guys a Darwin Award.

Arrests often happen this long after the event. They use that time to build up an airtight case and to try to find more co-conspiritors.

[dsl39uf]

Originally Posted by radiometer

EBAY?!

Seriously, if you're going to be buying chemicals, you better be buying from various hole in the wall locations. Trying to support your entire operation through some mainstream site like this...

[old hippie 56]

A gold plated one as well, what a dumbass.

[hoodabudda]

cops are already looking on ebay for stolen items why would you try to do a drug deal through it especially with that name.

[Felonious Skunk]

I like the line "aspiring chemical engineering student."

The DA probably hasn't stopped laughing since he read that...

[hoodabudda]

Originally Posted by Felonious Skunk

I like the line "aspiring chemical engineering student."

The DA probably hasn't stopped laughing since he read that...

yeah that made swim laugh.

[Rio Fantastic]

Had he taken a few precuations, then a lot of ecstasy might of come into Colorado. Or maybe freebasing@hotmail.com was using sassafra oil, a vacum pump and a gas regulator because he really was an aspiring chemical engineering student.

[Broshious]

Originally Posted by hoodabudda

cops are already looking on ebay for stolen items why would you try to do a drug deal through it especially with that name.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to do a drug deal. He just got a lot of his chemistry supplies via ebay.

[rxbandit]

if he would have slowly gotten random friends to each buy pieces of his chemistry set would the cops have been able to put together a case? and also alot of items that are suspect seem to have an anonymity deal attached to the auction, are the police allowed to bypass the anonymous feature that sellers can choose to keep their buyers unknown? just curious

[Evil GIR]

Anyone dare to email him ?

Could screw with the police, asking why the shipment of mdma didnt come through.

But I bet they would try to throw your ass in jail for trying to buy the stuff.

Probably not a good idea realy.