Citizen tip leads to arrest involving exotic drug

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

TEMECULA - A San Diego man has been arrested with parcels containing 70 pounds of an exotic drug at a Temecula Postal Annex, after the owner of the neighboring store reported two men loitering outside, police said.

The owner said he was convinced the men were terrorists.

Authorities said they were awaiting shipments of the drug khat, which is illegal in the United States and grown in the Horn of Africa. The bitter-tasting leaf acts as a stimulant when chewed and is common in Yemen and Somalia.

Dean Ziroli, owner of Max Muscle, a sports supplement store in a shopping center at Ynez and Rancho California roads, said that on Tuesday morning he and his employees noticed two men hanging around for a long time in front of the store.

"They were kind of suspicious," Ziroli said.

Ken Reulein, a bodybuilder who works at the store, confronted the men.

"I asked them if they were terrorists," Reulein said, "and they said that they weren't."

"They told me they were from Somalia," Reulein added.

The men said they were waiting for packages, but Ziroli called 911.

Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jerry Franchville said one of the men was gone when officers arrived. Officers searched the area but couldn't find him.

Investigators were in and out of the Postal Annex for several hours Tuesday examining parcels, while the man later arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance sat in the back of a running police cruiser.

Franchville said investigators are trying to figure out where the packages came from and whether they are part of a larger trafficking operation.

Nur Aweis "Geesay" Mohamed, 35, of San Diego, was arrested and booked Tuesday into the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley. Bail was $1 million, jail records show.

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According to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration fact sheet, khat comes from a shrub grown in southern Arabia and eastern Africa. It has become increasingly common over the past 12 years or so in the United States, where it typically is chewed by men who immigrated from Somalia, Yemen and Ethiopia.

According to the DEA, the drug usually is purchased from farmers in the Horn of Africa for about $1 per kilogram (2.2 pounds). Warlords in that area use planes to ship khat to countries in Europe, such as Britain, where it is legal, according to the DEA. There, the khat is sold to middlemen for about $200 per kilogram before being shipped to the United States and elsewhere.

Khat trafficking operations smuggle the product into the United States using couriers with suitcases loaded with the drug or send it via express mail, according to the DEA.

In New York on Tuesday, three members of an international khat trafficking ring arrested last summer in a major DEA khat bust were convicted in federal court, a DEA news release said.

In that case, the ring imported weekly khat shipments to New York through western Europe, then distributed it across the United States, the release said. They received some shipments in express packages, the contents of which were described as "documents" or "children's toys."

San Diego police Officer Abdiweli Heibeh, who is of Somali and Ethiopian descent, said that in east African and other countries, khat is perceived more as a "social stimulant," the way beer is in the U.S. People might consume it at a wedding or while hanging out discussing politics, he said.

Some members of east African immigrant communities would like to see the drug legalized, Heibeh said, because, as Muslims for whom alcohol consumption is prohibited, they feel khat is their only form of recreation, Heibeh said. Some feel khat is acceptable because it is natural and unprocessed, Heibeh said, although many Muslims disagree.

Regardless, Heibeh said, "it is against the law and we encourage people to stop using it."

Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or [email protected]

Source: PE.com, June 27, 2007