San Diego Union Tribune 10/3/02
KETAMINE SMUGGLING RING IS BROKEN UP
Tijuana veterinary supply firm is involved, say officials
By Marisa Taylor and Sandra Dibble STAFF WRITERS
Thousands of vials filled with a veterinary anesthetic known in dance clubs as "Special K" flowed from a Mexican manufacturing company into the hands of U.S. drug users from San Diego to New York, authorities said yesterday.
A smuggling ring, which included a Mexican veterinarian and the owner of a Tijuana veterinary supply company, became North America's largest producer and supplier of the drug, U.S. and Mexican officials said at a news conference.
During their two-year investigation, federal agents seized thousands of vials - including a shipment discovered in a moving van, coming from San Diego, that was stopped in Kansas.
The investigation began in Simi Valley.
Police had received a tip that ketamine and steroids were being sold at gyms. Authorities then traced the ketamine shipments back to U.S. dealers and the Mexican suppliers. So far, seven men have been arrested. Three others remain at large.
The manufacturing company, outside Mexico City in the state of Morelos, was licensed to order raw materials from China to make ketamine.
But Drug Enforcement Administration officials said the company, Ttokkyo, shipped vials to the Tijuana-based supply company Granero de Oro, where it was then sent illegally to drug dealers in San Diego, San Bernardino, San Francisco, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia and Boston.
Authorities in Panama arrested veterinarian Jose Francisco Molina, owner of Ttokkyo, and Tijuana business owner Jorge Chevreuil Bravo last month and turned them over to U.S. authorities.
Both men pleaded not guilty to drug conspiracy charges in Miami and were expected to be transported to San Diego soon.
Despite the arrests, two of Chevreuil's veterinary supply stores in Tijuana remained open for business. Manager Adolfo Rodas described Chevreuil as honest and hardworking. "Everything that he's achieved has been through legal means," he said.
The business was founded about 40 years ago by his father, Jorge Chevreuil Gonzalez, who is now overseeing the stores, Rodas said.
Rodas insisted that the company was selling the product legally, over the counter, to anyone, including U.S. customers. Unlike in the United States, the product is commonly sold without a prescription.
"I can sell it to whoever comes in," said Rodas. "I am not a policeman to be asking them, `What do you want that for?' If people want to use it as a drug, that's their business."
In Mexico, ketamine can be bought in pharmacies for $12 to $20 per 10 milliliter vial, which can be cooked down to about 10 doses, authorities said.
In the United States, the price jumps to $100 a vial. Drug users have experimented with ketamine since the 1970s to feel the "near-death experience" of the anesthetic, said Glen Stanley, a Los Angeles County sheriffs detective who teaches other officers about club drugs.
In the 1990s, the anesthetic became increasingly popular in San Diego and other cities as a club drug that can be "cooked" into a dry powder and snorted, or injected in its liquid form.
In high doses, it can be used as a date rape drug.
The drug, which can be legitimately used as an anesthetic for cats and dogs, became a controlled substance in 1999.
But ketamine's reputation as a harder drug has made it less popular than other club drugs such as Ecstasy.
Erin Rose, who used ketamine with her boyfriend when she was 18, suffered brain damage after her heart stopped. She emerged from a coma weeks later.
"This drug ruined my life," Rose, now 19, said at the news conference. Her mother had to drive her from their home in Laguna Niguel.
"I may never drive again. I may never have a job again. I may never live alone," Rose said.
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