USA - DEA Busts Local Men for Internet Drug Death

[chillinwill]

The death of a young man in Louisiana led the Drug Enforcement Administration to arrest two young men in Las Vegas. 25-year-old Michael Burton and his housemate, 25-year-old Keith Russart, were arrested for selling hallucinogenic chemicals on the Internet. The men were part of a larger DEA sting.

The two suspects were arrested for operating the website AmericanChemicalSupply.com. The site makes it look like they were selling chemicals for research. But the DEA says they knew they were selling the chemicals for consumption and it led to one man's death. Their Las Vegas home was the center of the investigation. The DEA in Louisiana says two young men, Michael Burton and Keith Russart, operated a drug ring there that had far-reaching effects.

Warren Rivera, with the DEA in Louisiana says, "We have a death in middle Louisiana that we can trace to Las Vegas. I think that's pretty interesting."

The interesting part is how the DEA traced the death of quadriplegic, James Downs, to the Las Vegas men. The 22-year-old died last March in St. Francisville, Louisiana, after overdosing on a hallucinogenic powder, known as 2C-T-21. The drug has similar effects as Ecstasy.

Warren Rivera, with the DEA in Louisiana says, "It can make your body temperature rise. For instance, when Mr. Downs was admitted to the hospital, his temperature reached 108 degrees."

After Downs died, the DEA was able to trace his computer activity to the website AmericanChemicalSupply.com.

Warren Rivera, with the DEA in Louisiana says, "You have to do investigations and work it backwards. And find out who is using the IP address and would lease the IP address. And you work it backwards that way. So we end up in Las Vegas."

They tracked the site to Burton and Russart and discovered that other DEA offices were working on similar cases. A total of five similar websites were shutdown with the arrest of ten suspects.

Warren Rivera, with the DEA in Louisiana says, "I think we made a statement that they're not gonna be able to do it without the fear of some kind of retaliation from federal law enforcement."

The two Las Vegas men will be prosecuted in Louisiana since that is where James Downs died. If convicted, the two men are facing twenty years to life in prison.

Cindy Cesare
Klas-TV
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story....6&nav=168XP8nN