USA - Sleuthing on eBay by law enforcement not uncommon

[Pondlife]

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/aug...forcement-not/

Sleuthing on eBay by law enforcement not uncommon

By Laura Snider
Sunday, August 26, 2007

When police stormed a south Boulder home to search for an ecstasy lab early in
the morning on Aug. 14, they were armed with a warrant issued largely because of
suspicious, albeit legal, purchases on the Internet auction site eBay.

Trolling eBay and its sister company, PayPal, for red flags is hardly a new
law-enforcement technique. In fact, the cyber-sleuthing of just one federal drug
enforcement agent in San Diego has led to the discovery of more than three dozen
clandestine methamphetamine and ecstasy labs in the last two years, according to
an affidavit filed by the Boulder County Drug Task Force.

"People that are involved in illegal drug trafficking are going to try to find
ways that will not cause them to come under suspicion — whether it's online or
whether they go to a third party," said Mike Turner, an agent with the DEA's
Rocky Mountain Field Division.

As potential drug traffickers search for anonymity and suppliers in the online
world, federal agents are close at their heels, and eBay extends law enforcement
officials a helping hand.

The eBay purchases

Purchases made on eBay by the e-mail account freebasing@hotmail.com tipped off
the Drug Enforcement Agency to a suspected ecstasy lab in south Boulder, police
said. The items were legal, but known components of a lab. They included:

June 30, 2006 600-gram tabletop balance $51.01
July 4, 2006 lab vacuum pump $123
July 13, 2006 four-neck lab beaker $51.23
July 17, 2006 temperature controller $70
July 17, 2006 2-liter reaction flask with indents $121.23
July 21, 2006 five-neck 500-ml reaction flask $55
July 24, 2006 1-liter pressure-equalized funnel $51.01
July 25, 2006 stirrer/hotplate $24.99
July 26, 2006 5 grams of mercury chloride $50.01
July 27, 2006 vacuum pump $119.99
July 28, 2006 500-ml dimethylformamide $33.92
Aug. 5, 2006 fitted gas dispersion tubes $20.34
Aug. 6, 2006 lab vacuum gauge $5
Aug. 17, 2006 4-liter separatory funnel $170
Oct. 10 temperature controller $30.99
Oct. 11 250-ml powder-dispensing funnel $120.99
Oct. 23 1 gallon nitromethane, 100 percent pure $54.95
Nov. 12 military-issue gas mask $34.99
Nov. 29 4-inch reaction flask clamp $61
Jan. 5 thermometer with threaded adapter $16
Jan. 17 essential oil $879.78
Jan. 18 hydrogen gas cylinder regulator $120
Jan. 20 round-bottomed boiling flask $14.99
Jan. 25 ace bearing trubore $80
Feb. 22 stopcock flow control valve $50
March 11 fire extinguisher $30
April 21 1 gallon vacuum pump oil $8.95
May 6 32 ounces sassafras oil $305
June 9 10 grams palladium chloride $140
June 11 1 pound copper chloride n/a
June 27 gas regulator valve $24.99
July 11 stainless steel vacuum filter holder $110
July 26 1 pound sodium metabisulfate $5.99

Police also said in their request for a search warrant that the account made a
$2,595 purchase from a Canadian known to sell sassafras oil, a key ingredient in
manufacturing ecstasy. Source: the search warrant affidavit

"We have a global Fraud Investigations Team who collaborates with law
enforcement to assist them in their investigations," said Nichola Sharpe, an
eBay spokeswoman. "We've been working with the Drug Enforcement Agency as far
back as 2006. People buy items that are completely harmless — law enforcement
can look at that and see it's suspicious."

That was the case with Carl DuBois, 29, who used the e-mail account
freebasing@hotmail.com to purchase thousands of dollars worth of chemicals,
essential oils and lab equipment on eBay — all legal, but known ingredients
orhardware for making ecstasy — and sent them to his home address at 720 S. 46th
St. The combination and amount of the purchases was enough to launch the
investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of DuBois and his girlfriend,
Debra Cerio, 41, when police say they found enough chemicals in their house to
manufacture 80,000 doses of ecstasy.

Of course, anyone who was looking could have seen what bids the person known as
"freebasing" was making on eBay, a public site, but the DEA had to file an
administrative subpoena to access Dubois' personal information — name, address,
credit card information, etc.

Administrative subpoenas, which allow the DEA to get quick access to "business"
documents, are not as difficult to get as a court-ordered subpoena issued by a
judge. But no matter what kind of subpoena was used to gather the information,
the agents had to make their case before a judge to win a search warrant.

"We couldn't get an administrative subpoena to search a home," said Turner.
The process of getting the necessary information for police investigations has
been streamlined by eBay, which actually has a dedicated page on its site
especially for law enforcement. There is a link on the page for the "blotter,"
which displays all the recent busts connected with eBay across the world — most
have to do with stolen property.

"Selling illegal or prohibited items is neither permitted nor welcome in eBay,"
Sharpe said.
But even if eBay didn't go to these measures to accommodate investigations,
there is no expectation of privacy on that type of site, according to the Center
for Technology and Democracy, a nonprofit that lobbies for Internet privacy.

"If you are openly forwarding your illegal enterprise on an open-auction Web
site, you can't expect that to be hidden from the world," said Dave McGuire,
director of communications for the center. "You have to exercise some common
sense. For this case, though, it doesn't set off any alarm bells for us."

The Center for Technology and Democracy is much more concerned about police
operations in which large amounts of personal information from the Internet are
made available without any suspicious circumstances.

"You should research who you're doing business with and what their policy is,"
McGuire said. "There's a certain concept of online hygiene."

When people sign up to buy or sell on eBay, they agree to a privacy policy that
explicitly states eBay will share their personal information with law
enforcement if they receive a verified request.

But the DEA's Turner doesn't think any of this should cause the average,
law-abiding eBay user concern.

"Police are not going to be kicking in someone's door just because they bought
the chemistry kit," he said. "There's a lot more to establishing probable
cause."

Reputation Comments on this post:

	always love hearing about dumasses
	very informative
	Thank's alot! Very informative..

[old hippie 56]

The purchased of multi-neck flasks alone is a search warrant waiting to happen.

[Nagognog2]

Love the email address: freebasing@hotmail.com. Red Flag + Bull = Ouch!

[enquirewithin]

That person had a common sense deficit! Seem to remember another case like this....

[Joe Duffy]

Judging by Mr. freebasing’s stealthy buying methods ones seriously doubts he

would have the necessary skills to produce MDMA, I think there would be a

better chance of a monkey(non-evolving type) in a well equipped lab working

for an infinite amount of time, producing some.

[Evil GIR]

Stupid, Swim would of had all the chems and equipment spread out across all his friends.
To do this kind of chemistry you need to at least plan it over a 5 year period using diffrent addresses, names and accounts. Even when you have the chems, swim would wait for quite a while before bringing everything together.

[Felonious Skunk]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

The purchased of multi-neck flasks alone is a search warrant waiting to happen.

Probably in Tejas.

But I have no doubt you could set up a complete lab via eBay and never hear from LE. However, throw precursors into the equation and they might take notice.

Of the two busts I've seen resulting from eBay purchases, both were veritable idiots who basically waved a public flag that said CLANDESTINE LAB HERE by buying a standard ingredient checklist for MDMA production, all on eBay and in a two month time frame. That's just really asking for it...

While there's no guarantee, it takes a lot to get noticed by LE. They just want you to think that your door will get busted down at 4 AM for buying a thermometer.

[old hippie 56]

^^With the current situation on the "war on drugs", swim wouldn't want to risk a 4am wake up call.
Everything related to cooking dope is illegal in Tejas!

[zera]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

The purchased of multi-neck flasks alone is a search warrant waiting to happen.

No, it was the sassafras oil that tipped them off. I saw another case like this with a man in New York last year on the Smoking Gun, and like this case it appeared that the Feds started monitoring him after he bought sassafras. Buying list I chemicals on a public auction site == bad idea. Im cofident he wouldnt have had problems if he would have avoided buying the sassafras online.

[UberDouche]

Well, maybe he wasn't a complete idiot. He did buy a gas-mask and the all-important, indispensable fire extinguisher. But otherwise, yes, I'd have to agree, poor risk-management and no operational security.

[iknowjt]

just to put an idea out there...in swim's experience with police and authority of every type, since grade school, has taught swim to view news stories and police reports, sometimes in a different way:

simple example: Joe Schmo was pulled over for speeding at 8pm yesterday. Officer Pigsty observed Joe Schmo acting strange and shifty eyed. Officer Pigsty asked Mr. Schmo if he had was on drugs and might he be transporting any. Joe Schmo then explained to the officer, than a green backpack located in the far left corner of his trunk contained 65 pounds Chinawhite heroin, and that he didn't mind if the officer opened it up and checked.

what really happened: nobody knows, nobody else was there. officer's word against Joes.

iknowjt added 27 Minutes and 21 Seconds later...

now, another, perhaps more realistic explanation for this unlikely story.
what's so unrealistic? that anybody would possess the technical knowledge to attempt such a largescale, clearly profit oriented operation, and yet not know how to tie their shoes, so to speak??
even if these people were legit law loving innocent scientists, who just simply misjudged the degree of caution needed, when setting up a major manufacturing operation.....that still doesn't explain how they supposed they would sell 80,000 pills.....on ebay? cmon, only people with deeply rooted ties in the drug trade in their area would know who to sell that much ecstasy too....and people like that wouldn't be this clueless.

in reality the couple was very smart, so smart you swims didn't even catch on!
the smart ones ofcourse, really being the actual operaters of major clan lab.
think about it, the pigs themselves state that nothing they ordered is illegal. and swims here say it'd be better to have friends order different things.....why? cause friends probably aren't dreaming of chemistry projects. Swim thinks the couple had some friend or friends, and trully friends cause this type of things requires trust. And that friend had them order a bunch of chemicals and equipment, in a SHORT period of time, all the chems and equipment, in reality probably being only a small peice of the setup. And a promise was made by the friend, that if, if and when LE comes and knocks the door down and they're in jail, that the friend, who makes a pretty penny, would bail them out. Notice $25,000 and what,m $60,000? hmmm, and once the court proceedings would begin...it would turn out that there was no evidence at ALL, that they were making ecstasy. Just like piggy said, no evidence that anything was being sold.....as far as swims imagined it, some actual final product would have to be found in order for the charges to hold up at all.....it's perfect, and best of all, in the end it would make LE look stupid and once more publically pose the question: "Why do they get to raid people like this?????" if this is the case, swim says, you guys kick ass, good job

iknowjt added 0 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...

now, another, perhaps more realistic explanation for this unlikely story.
what's so unrealistic? that anybody would possess the technical knowledge to attempt such a largescale, clearly profit oriented operation, and yet not know how to tie their shoes, so to speak??
even if these people were legit law loving innocent scientists, who just simply misjudged the degree of caution needed, when setting up a major manufacturing operation.....that still doesn't explain how they supposed they would sell 80,000 pills.....on ebay? cmon, only people with deeply rooted ties in the drug trade in their area would know who to sell that much ecstasy too....and people like that wouldn't be this clueless.

in reality the couple was very smart, so smart you swims didn't even catch on!
the smart ones ofcourse, really being the actual operaters of major clan lab.
think about it, the pigs themselves state that nothing they ordered is illegal. and swims here say it'd be better to have friends order different things.....why? cause friends probably aren't dreaming of chemistry projects. Swim thinks the couple had some friend or friends, and trully friends cause this type of things requires trust. And that friend had them order a bunch of chemicals and equipment, in a SHORT period of time, all the chems and equipment, in reality probably being only a small peice of the setup. And a promise was made by the friend, that if, if and when LE comes and knocks the door down and they're in jail, that the friend, who makes a pretty penny, would bail them out. Notice $25,000 and what,m $60,000? hmmm, and once the court proceedings would begin...it would turn out that there was no evidence at ALL, that they were making ecstasy. Just like piggy said, no evidence that anything was being sold.....as far as swims imagined it, some actual final product would have to be found in order for the charges to hold up at all.....it's perfect, and best of all, in the end it would make LE look stupid and once more publically pose the question: "Why do they get to raid people like this?????" if this is the case, swim says, you guys kick ass, good job

[mr. nawtynuff]

err, is it just me or does anyone else get deja vu when reading the post above?

[iknowjt]

it's just you dude.....................ok seriously though the forum prog did that i swear