| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
First in nation judgment on methamphetamine materials case
Wednesday April 02, 2003SACRAMENTO (AP) Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they obtained a first-in-the-nation judgment against a small Stockton convenience store that bought extraordinary amounts of decongestants that could be used to manufacture methamphetamine.
In six months, the Cherokee Market bought more than 6,500 bottles containing more than 544,000 tablets of a nasal decongestant containing pseudoephedrine, which can be used to make the illegal street drug methamphetamine.
That's 53 times what such a store would be expected to purchase, prosecutors said, citing 1997 Economic Census data.
On a single day, the market spent more than $6,000 to buy more than 700 bottles of the drug from two distributors, they alleged.
The government sued the market and owner Dien Jim Nguyen, 42, settling the case for $50,000 and a permanent, lifetime injunction against his sale of the drug or any other than could be used to make methamphetamine.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration said it's the first time a civil forfeiture action was used against a retail market for its sale of the drug.
The resolution follows civil prosecutions against Cherokee Market's two distributors.
A jury in July ordered $441,000 in civil penalties against Grab Bag Distributing and owner Rodney Nickerson, 66, of Modesto. The government obtained a $225,000 judgment against the other distributor, C.W. Brower of Modesto.
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