Lakeville man charged in 'date rape' drug probe
David Chanen and Tom Ford
Star Tribune
Published Sep 20, 2002
DRUG20
A Lakeville man was charged Thursday and eight other people were arrested in Minnesota and South Dakota as part of a federal crackdown on Internet trafficking of the "date rape" drug GHB and related chemicals.
More than 30 gallons of a chemical that converts quickly to GHB when it is ingested were found Wednesday in the Lakeville home of Doug S. Beck, according to charges filed in federal court in Minneapolis. Lakeville Police Chief Dave Martens said he had been told by federal authorities that it was one of the more significant seizures in the sweep this week across the country and Canada.
Asa Hutchinson, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which coordinated the national operation, said dealers marketed the drugs in nearly every state and in several other countries. In the past couple of days, authorities arrested 115 people in 84 cities in the United States and Canada and seized enough chemicals to produce 25 million doses of GHB.
A gallon of GHB can produce more than 7,500 doses, said Skip Van Patten, head of the DEA region that covers Minnesota.
Inspector Sue Matt of the U.S. Postal Service's field office in St. Paul said more than 35 gallons of GBL and 1,4 Butanediol (BD), substances which when ingested convert to GHB, were seized in searches within her district, which covers Minnesota, the Dakotas and western Wisconsin.
She wouldn't identify in which cities law enforcement officers found the chemicals or where the eight people were arrested.
"GHB is the hot drug of the moment," she said. "That's why this operation was so successful, because a lot of people want this stuff. We anticipate more arrests."
Beck, 36, who has coached in metro-area schools and is also known as "Animal," wasn't among those arrested but has been charged.
A confidential informant said Beck was making $40,000 a month selling illegal substances and steroids over the Internet, the complaint said.
Operation Webslinger
"Our campuses, our neighborhoods and our communities are safer places for young women today because cyberspace just got more dangerous for drug traffickers," said Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Dubbed Operation Webslinger, the two-year investigation targeted leaders and midlevel brokers of Internet drug-trafficking rings who operated Web sites that advertised GHB and its derivatives as industrial cleaning products. Online orders were delivered by mail. This was the first federal investigation of Internet traffickers of GHB.
Under federal law, people can be prosecuted if they sell GHB-related drugs for human consumption. GHB and its derivatives are depressants that can cause nausea and dizziness and, at higher doses, seizures and unconsciousness. When used to aid in sexual assaults, the drug keeps victims from fending off attackers and impairs victims' memories, hindering prosecutions.
The DEA has documented 72 deaths from GHB and its derivatives. Hutchinson said at least one of those deaths can be attributed to drugs sold by the people recently arrested.
Investigators seized more than $1 million in cash and property from four primary investigations involving St. Louis, Detroit, San Diego, Mobile, Ala., Buffalo, N.Y., Sparta, Tenn., and Quebec City, Canada.
In April 2000, local authorities searched Beck's home in the 10500 block of W. 166th St. and found 2.5 gallons of BD, but he wasn't charged with a crime. A year ago, a special agent with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration logged on to the Web site elitefitness.com and went to its classified section. This led to another site, and the agent learned how to order BD from Beck, the complaint said. In January, the agent bought 500 milliliters of BD for $145, which was mailed to him within a week, the complaint said.
It alleges that Beck has been selling BD for two years and that he sells it to bodybuilders for human consumption.
Beck worked in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District from 1996 to 2000, said Tony Taschner, a district spokesman. He was the gymnastics coach at Rosemount Middle School and an assistant gymnastics coach at Rosemount High School during the 1996-97 school year. From 1997 to 2000 he was an assistant gymnastics coach at East View High School in Apple Valley, Taschner said.
"His coaching assignment wasn't renewed," he said, and added that he didn't know why it wasn't. Taschner wouldn't comment about whether there had been any complaints against or problems with Beck.
He also worked briefly as an assistant coach at Bloomington Kennedy High School for one year about a decade ago, said Bloomington Superintendent Gary Prest.
Lyle Kuehn, 55, who lives two doors west of Beck, said that he and several neighbors would see delivery trucks outside Beck's house almost daily.
He said Beck's wife and two children left him about four months ago, adding that he "wasn't surprised" by Thursday's raid. Kuehn said Beck has "pretty much kept to himself, especially after the last raid two years ago."
-- Kavita Kumar and Terry Collins contributed to this report.
-- David Chanen is at
[email protected].
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He was away on vacation at the time. For more: www.animalkits.be/phpbb/viewtopic.php?topic=3552&forum=1&47
