You might have heard similiar stories and think I am a moron but listen up.... I ordered a small quantity of safrole rich sassafras oil from a company in France. It's a list 1 chemical and at the time, I didn't realize that it was illegal to import list 1 chems without a license. Well it is. I simply thought from what i read, there were just quantity limits. So either the company in France sent the US DEA my email messages or US customs was really smart and investigated the package, then went to the company and requested it. I won't say why I ordered it, I don't have the labware to make use of in in making E but when it was delivered, I was super glad I didn't. The "postman" showed up at 8 am one morning (odd, and not my regular postman) with a package. He looked like an easy going kind of guy and said he knew what is was and said, "your making E out of this aren't you" Really odd comment to me. I knew something was up. I relplied with "What are you talking about?" He went on and on about it then said, "you have some E tabs to sell me, I just need a couple." I told him no several times and how I don't have or sell drugs (it is the truth)...over and over... Finally, after 3 minutes of arguing how I don't have drugs to sell, (he moved to wanting some pot after a while), he said I needed to sign for the package and I needed to come to the mail truck to do it. I had sinking feeling cuz I knew this was not right. When I got to the truck, He said these guy needed to ask me some questions. Then about 8 DEA agents appeared, frisked me and started drilling me with questions. They aked if we could go in my home to talk. To avoid the humiliation of my neighbors and since i have nothing to hide, I said yes. They told me that I was unders surveillence for the past three days and knew everywhere I had gone...and it's interesting since I ride a bike and take trails so they had some good tracking going on of my whereabouts. They kept repeating the questions in an intimidating manner and eventually I said, I was going to request legal assistance if they kept asking questions--they were trying to find contradictions in my answers. Their questions seem to have the tone of that I was buying the oil from someone else with an E lab and they were hoping I was going to fink them out. One wanted to use my bathroom and i suspect it was a way to check my place out. He also wanted me to write the name of the company I ordered from on a piece of paper, which I suspect was simply a way to get my handwriting since he knew what company I ordered from because he read my emails to them. I was worried they were going to rip out a search warrant and tear my house apart. I had nothing to find in the house, but you can imagine it would be a mess to have that happen. They didn't. They just intimidated me. They finally just left saying they had to confiscate the oil. I answered their questions with yes/no answers so I didn't draw out the ordeal but afterwards I got mad. I was mad that they intimidated me like they did. I was mad that the company in France was glad to take my money, seeminly knowing that this might happen. I researched on the web about list 1 precursor chems and get conflicting info. After the fact I found that as long as you have a license, you can buy quantities up to a limit per month. But not having the license is the issue and that is not clear in the sources I found. I wonder now if the France company is just a front of the DEA...I don't know and just let if be since I worried for a while after if they were still watching me. I read about instances of this happening but it seems they were already watching these folks from other leads, tracking not only oil bought, but labware and having selling activity. But the lesson learned here is that the DEA seems to have a pulse on internet precursor chem sales in some way or another.
wow thats fucked. im a little ignorant. what does "safrole rich sassafras oil" have to do with making extacy? could someone please shed a tear of enlightenment this way?
I have a sassafras tree in my yard. Could this be the plant? its quite common in the barrens. Imagine the cost of such an investigation to the taxpayers? Isnt that shit all made overseas anyways?
According to the DEA website, sassafras oil isn't listed but safrole is, probably streaching their legal authority to hassel you, also probably why they were trying to get you to confess to something rather then just busting you. Could be questionable legally, if they tired to prosecute for it, but since the DEA usually only go after the mid to big fish, probably nothing to worry about. They would also have to prove you intended to use it to make x and not root beer or something. They have in the past set up front companies to try to catch people, so that is a possiblity too.
ROFL, you might as well have tried to order cocaine and then complained when they harassed you about it. Or maybe some ergotamine rich migraine tablets.
Interesting. Not too long ago there was a takedown of a clandestine lab in Buffalo, NY. They were caught because they had been ordering sassy from a company in France. Quite possible that company could be a stooge for the narco-cowboys. BTW, what quantity of oil did you order?
I got the minimum they sold, which was a liter. Here is a link but notice, there is other evidence of making escstasy such as ordering things like labware and pill presses from ebay. Plus they did two controlled deliveries before issuing a search warrant. It seems they had evidence of dealing because the warrant expected to find ledgers. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0428062dea1.html I read about a bust on the DEA site where someone had it delivered to a PO box and they arrested them when they went to pick it up. They got a warrant and found an E lab. But likely, they already has some evidence. I don't think Sass oil is sufficient grounds to get a warrant, but maybe so. I think in my case, the DEA didn't suspect me using the oil as much as they thought I might be selling it in the Black Market. I was told they could have fined me $10000 for ordering the oil without a license. BTW, they told me I could get a license to import Sassafras oil for $700. That allows me to import a certain amount but I would also have to send reports of where it goes and account for it. That comment about ordering coke and then trying to defend it is silly. If that was the same, they would have arrested me right there. Sassafras is a precursor but has many other uses, even as simple as an aromatherapy oil. In fact, the site it was ordered from sold it as that.
It's hard to determine what the real story is. Sassafras oil is not illegal to possess in any quantity, though large amounts without a "legitimate" use for it certainly casts suspicion that it will be used for clandestine purposes. On the other hand, high-purity safrole is definitely illegal to possess without a permit. A variety of sassafras distilled from ocotea cymbarum contains over 90% safrole, yet is technically legal to possess as an essential oil used in aromatherapy and holistic treatments for rheumatism. I don't know whether they were lying to you or not when they told you that a permit was necessary to import sassafras oil. I know there are domestic sources for it and they are required to maintain a record of customer purchases. I used to buy sassafras and brown camphor oils by the pound many years ago and had to fill out forms that were sent to the DEA, yet I never heard from or was bothered by them. I find it a bit strange that they would waste their time on a one liter purchase when there was no other corroborating evidence that would link you to manufacturing, or supplying a manufacturer. lol....I mean taking a look at that Smoking Gun link....shit, that had me laughing for a few minutes. Cono! What was papito thinking?!! But they definitely overreacted in your situation, and technically I'm not sure if they even had a right to confiscate your purchase, especially if all they saw you do is ride your bike around for 3 days. What a bunch of jerks. No wonder that can't even stop 1% of all the shit that gets smuggled into the US every year.
From another case, I found out that there is an internal DEA document that says to agents to treat Sassafras oil the same as safrole, but it has nothing to do with the actual legality of Sassafras oil. It just really just means that they intend to harass/investigate people, if they think they are involved in x making.
^^^^ Yeah that's typical of them, they're a renegade and out-of-control LE group. Out of laziness congress gave them scheduling powers, but for some reason they haven't been able to crack the essential oil market. On second thought, it might be intentional; keeping it quasi-legal so it's possible to order and have it shipped, a bait of sorts to catch the dumber ones like "CARLOS LEGRAND".
Update. Interestingly enough a home was raided a while back for being an E lab. http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/aug/18/ecstasy-lab-suspect-declares-innocence/ They monitored purchases on ebay, looked at receipts in the trash of the suspect and got a search warrant. They found lots of labware, chems-- and several liters of sassafras oil. Filed charges with intent to make MDMA. The suspect claims he was studying chemistry. Seems to me without a clear intention to make MDMA, having precursor chems that are not illegal would not be able to make a case. They must have found a recipe to have enought to get a search warrant. But it does seem that having sassafras oil seems to give the DEA a lot of leverage to act.
