A Salisbury woman accused of dealing synthetic marijuana has been in trouble before.
Letha
Dean, 71, pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges in 2009, long before
she was arrested last week and charged with peddling thousands of packets of synthetic
marijuana, which is plant material that’s been sprayed with chemicals. The
drug, said to have horrible side effects, gained popularity as a way to get
high while passing drug tests administered by employers or law enforcement
authorities. Exactly what’s in the drug isn’t clear, with makers tweaking recipes in hopes of avoiding prosecution on the theory that changes in chemical composition will render the products legal.
While
undetectable in standard drug tests, users report that the drug is addictive. Experts
say it can trigger psychosis while also placing users at risk of heart attacks
and kidney failure. At least three people have died in Illinois in recent weeks
after smoking synthetic marijuana that includes ingredients found in rat
poison. More than 100 users in Illinois have been hospitalized, and scourge has
spread to the East Coast, where at least three people in Maryland have been
taken to hospitals after experiencing bleeding. Blood can flow from eyes and
ears, and it also can show up in urine.
Federal
prosecutors say that the case against Dean is part of a larger investigation that began in 2013 and stretches from St. Louis, where drugs were manufactured in a clandestine lab, to a money laundering operation based in the Detroit area that has sent millions of dollars to Yemen. Eight people, including Dean, have been charged with federal drug offenses. Two men arrested in 2016 have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Charges against five others filed earlier this year are pending. Besides Springfield, authorities say that convenience stores, gas stations and smoke shops in Decatur peddled the drug.
Dean allegedly sold the drug through a store called Mystic
Enhantments, where she started work after admitting in 2009 that she had run a
house of prostitution in a Springfield residential neighborhood near the
intersection of College Street and Lenox Avenue. Dean’s brothel, prosecutors
said, was part of an interstate ring run by madams who sent prostitutes from
one state to another. More than a dozen people were charged. Dean and the other
defendants, some from as far away as Massachusetts and Florida, received
probation.
At sentencing in 2009, Dean portrayed herself as a madam with a heart who didn’t
allow drugs and made sure that the women who came through her house had plenty
to eat. She testified that she counseled the women and told them that they
couldn’t be prostitutes forever.
“We
tried to do it the best way we could,” Dean told U.S. District Court Judge
Jeanne Scott, since retired, before sentence was pronounced. “We just tried to
better everybody and not hurt anybody.”
According
to court documents filed Friday by the U.S. attorney’s office, the
investigation began in 2013. Prosecutors say
that Abdul Alsamah, who owned a liquor store called The Crossing II, was “likely
the largest synthetic cannabinoid distributor in the Springfield area.” Federal
authorities based in Springfield have not charged Alsamah with a crime, according to the federal court docket. Neither
he nor anyone who could speak on his behalf could immediately be reached for
comment.
Sharon Paul, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield, would not say whether Alsamah will be charged. “I can’t comment on that other than to say it’s an ongoing investigation,” Paul said.
In
July of 2015, more than a year after authorities say they identified Alsamah as a
suspected drug dealer, prosecutors got court approval to videotape and overhear
conversations at Mystic Enchantments, which was adjacent to Alsamah’s liquor store at 2828 East Clearlake Avenue. Undercover agents started making buys in 2014, but the initial effort, a
$50 buy, suffered a glitch, according to court documents. “The interaction was
audio and video recorded, however, due to technical difficulties the audio and
video failed to record, Sean Simpson, a state attorney general investigator assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officer, wrote in a court
affidavit.
Subsequent
transactions went more smoothly, according to court documents.
On
Feb. 2, 2015, the undercover agent who made the first buy visited Mystic
Enchantments again and spoke with Dean about purchasing a larger amount, according to
court filings. The conversation was recorded on an audio and visual recording
device, prosecutors say. The agent purchased 25 packets containing $1,000 worth
of illegal synthetic marijuana less than a week later, according to Simpson’s
affidavit. With the help of court authorized recording devices, federal agents
also kept Mystic Enchantments, which also offered candles, oils and incense, under
surveillance for one month in the summer of 2015 and found plenty of activity.
“During
the period of July 31, 2015, through Aug. 2, 2015, agents monitoring
interceptions of audio and visual, non-verbal conduct at Mystic Enchantments observed a regular influx of foot traffic into Mystic Enchantments,” Simpson
says in his affidavit. “Agents observed that nearly every individual who
entered the business purchased synthetic cannabinoids from Letha Dean, and even
those who did not purchase synthetic cannabinoids asked about the brands of
synthetic cannabinoids available. The interceptions established that virtually
no legitimate business was conducted at Mystic Enchantments.”
Federal
agents with recording devices in 2015 watched and listened as Dean added up
sales with the help of an adding machine at day’s end, according to Simpson’s
affidavit. They also heard her speaking with Alsamah, her alleged but uncharged partner. “I think we’ll have another good day tomorrow,” she told him,
according to court documents.
Simpson and an investigator with the Illinois state attorney general’s office visited the shop more than two years ago and spoke with both Dean and Alsamah, Simpson says in his affidavit.
Simpson writes that he and the investigator confronted Dean about suspected illegal drug sales,
asking her if she was selling synthetic marijuana and informing her
that such sales were illegal. She denied selling synthetic pot, according to
Simpson’s affidavit. Simpson says he left his business card with Dean and
Alsamah.
The
friendly visit didn’t help, authorities say.
In
March of 2016, federal agents served a search warrant at Mystic Enchantments and found 339 packages of synthetic marijuana, plus 24 vials of a liquid
containing suspected synthetic pot products. All told, the seized illegal substances,
bearing labels such as Scooby Snax, Mr. Nice Geeked Up and Mr. Happy, weighed
about five pounds, according to Simpson’s affidavit. That same month, federal
agents established surveillance on Dean’s house in Salisbury, pulled her over
when they saw her leave and hauled her into DEA offices for questioning. She
told agents they were free to search her house, and they did, finding and
seizing nearly $2,500 in cash found in a sock stashed in a dresser. But no
charges were filed.
Last
Wednesday, after people started dying and bleeding from smoking synthetic
marijuana tainted with suspected rat poison, agents retained an informant to
buy synthetic pot from Dean. The informant was hoping for help on a pending
drug case against him Tazewell County, according to Simpson’s affidavit. The
price, Dean told the informant, had increased from $7 a packet to $10. “Everything
went to shit after this scare out here,” Dean told him. An undercover state
police investigator with $5,000 in his pocket went to Mystic Enchantments,
which had moved to 1020 West Lawrence Ave. since the 2016 bust, to make the buy
last Thursday. “I knew it,” Dean reportedly said as the cuffs went on, after
she’d handed over a garbage bag containing 520 packets to the undercover
investigator.
Police
who searched the store found an additional 1,445 packets. Between the
undercover buy and the stock remaining in Dean’s shop, agents recovered nearly
26 pounds of synthetic pot. It is, U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough
wrote in ordering that Dean be jailed, a grave allegation that carries a potential
sentence of 20 years and a $1 million fine. Dean, Myerscough wrote, poses a
danger to the community.
“The
nature and circumstances of the offense charged are very serious,” wrote Myerscough,
noting that evidence of Dean’s illegal drug trafficking dates back years and
involves large amounts of synthetic pot.
Outbreaks of bleeding from smoking synthetic pot have been centered in the Peoria area, although cases of bleeding also have been reported in Maryland in recent days. There is no indication in court documents whether drugs allegedly sold by Dean and others who’ve been charged in the investigation caused potentially deadly bleeding, but court documents suggest that making synthetic marijuana can be tricky.
According to court documents, drugs came from a St. Louis lab that produced hundreds of pounds. In 2015, Walid Alansawi, who was charged in February and identified as a source of synthetic pot sold in Decatur stores, told two store owners in search of the drug that there was none available because the maker hadn’t properly produced the last batch. Authorities say Alanasawi used the code word “milk” to identify chemical ingredients in the drug.
“The problem was that the milk wasn’t good for the last cook,” Alanasawi told the store owners in a three-way telephone conversation that was wiretapped, according to court documents. “Therefore he refused to give us any. … Also, not to mention, that they try everything before they give it to us.”
Click here to download court document
Contact Bruce Rushton
at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2018.
