center owner gets 30 years for selling iodine used to make meth
A federal judge in Chattanooga sentenced a garden center owner to 30 years in prison Friday morning for selling iodine used to make methamphetamine.Advertisement
Joseph Swafford was convicted in March of all 40 counts of conspiring to aid illegal drug manufacturing.
Prosecutors said Swafford sold large quantities of iodine to people suspected of making the illegal stimulant in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
The defense had argued for a ten-year sentence, but federal District Judge Curtis Collier handed down three decades in prison, saying he hoped the sentence would help deter others tempted to illegally sell meth ingredients.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Piper said Swafford sold enough iodine to manufacture more than 400 kilograms of meth. Enough, he said, to supply "every human being" in southeastern Tennessee and some counties in surrounding states.
Swafford must also forfeit his Chattanooga business, Broadway Home and Garden Center.
It was the quantities that got him into trouble. Apparently it's like electricity and "indoor gardening" equipment - if someone buys too much, LE investigates. I know it's illegal to be in possession of paraphernalia used or intended to be used in the marketting, manufacturing or consuming of certain drugs. Perhaps they had someone undercover try to buy and got him to confirm that he knew what it was being bought for. I think if they did that, it might be all LE would need.
-- L8r, Uncle Clover
************************************************ The true mark of a civilized society is when its citizens know how to hate each other peacefully.
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The thing is... who really knows from this article!
I remember of some in RL, who merely possessed red phos. in their upstate rocketry club and pyro fun club--as they once had thousands of acres of stony, rocky flat wastelands up there to 'play on-- becoming paranoid as well as having leo look in on their club AND their personal lives simply for ordering that one chem LONG before it was illegal to possess
How can anyone hope to know what would constitute arrestable quantities of a substance unless they followed the congressional quarterly every time it came out or were up on LEO's newest witch hunt that week or month? As--in the US today--it is generally regarded that you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise (at least in rl scenarios I have seen---unless you are a politico or 'connected)
Does that mean that polar pure water purification unit I once used for hiking should be thrown out or I might be thrown into prison as it DOES use iodine crystals for water purification? Heck, anyone who has been on the trail--as I was a bit as a child--knows that iodine crystals in a bit of water kills the bad organisms in it and combined with a filtration unit can render unsafe water drinkable I remember the commercial hand held units being advertised --showing people sucking up mud-puddle water and street runoff with them and drinkng it down seemingly with no ill effects!
How long will it go till the US govt deems Earth, wind and fire as controlled substances? Dont laugh! Even at walmart they actively watch and photograph buyers of matches and paint thinner and camp fuel they told me as I had to stand and wait as they came over to use a special card to allow me to buy a simple can of compressed air to clean my computer keyboard! Isnt that merely compressed nitrogen? And, the hassle I had to go thru last time I had my welding tanks filled at the gas place as they had to keep special logs and see all receipts before selling or filling a tank as they also claimed it was due to some sort of anti-drugs regulations Heck, if that stuff is used in drug manufacture wouldnt they think someone would rather just steal it than openly come buy it for their cutting/welding purposes? And the prices have skyrocketed due to new regs in storage of ALL their gases and paperwork he told me....and I have watched that same co change hands 4 times in less than five years due to onerous paperwork and inability to turn a good profit it seems...
Thanks for making the US a less competitive place to do business or carry on day to day activities Mr Leo alphabet man....
Any wonder China now outproduces us in high tech gear and is said to already own over 80-85% of all US govt t-bill debt now? They allow anyone to buy/ sell any chemical or gas or item and whatever and it is as to the market conditions only that dictates the price and only bother with actual drug users when it comes to laws and punishment--not innocent sellers of materials. THUS, in part Im sure, China is also one of the top raw drug and chemical manufacturers in the world today and our (US) pharmaceutical companys buy nearly all their raw materials and manufactured drugs powders and liquids from primarily Indian and Chinese sources as we can no longer compete due to onerous, costly govt regulations in the manufacturing process They simply bottle or press and then package and sell it here (any wonder for our high drugs prices here as well!) We are a service industry primarily- anymore A service industry has NO "real" competitive advantage in the world and will wither and die
Thanks US govt for killing-off the spirit of entrepreneurship and competition that made our country great at one time
What about the druggie losers that just happen to be in law enforcement? , when I first tried weed and LSD in the 70s I bought from a druggie loser cop, that had confiscated it from someone else.
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