Ecstasy ring gets prison sentence

Six days after seven members of an IU ecstasy-smuggling operation, including the ringleader and several former students, were sentenced to prison in a Detroit federal court, members of the IU police department still say esctasy is an issue on campus.\nBrent Killinger, 25, of Bloomington, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison after U.S. District Judge Paul Borman accepted his guilty plea for importation of a controlled substance. Killinger was charged on Oct. 2, 2001. \nIU Police Department drug task force representative Dave Hannum said despite the fact that Killinger was a major provider of ecstasy in Bloomington, the problem has not decreased.\n"It's about the same," he said. "It put a damper on it, but it's still available, so it's still a problem."\nAssistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet said the operation began in March 2000 when Killinger told one of his friends he was dissatisfied with the quality of the ecstasy distributed in Bloomington. \nKillinger's friend then put him in contact with Koen Michael Frans Van Riemsdijk Kreenen, a supplier in Amsterdam. \nFollowing a trip to Europe in spring of 2000, Killinger reportedly was able to establish ties with Kreenen, Waterstreet said. \nOver the course of the year, Killinger was able to hire couriers to transport ecstasy from the Netherlands, paying the couriers approximately $10,000 each.\nHannum said most of the couriers, dealers and purchasers were all IU students. \nWaterstreet said the couriers imported the pills by vacuum-packing the pills in plastic bags and then strapping them to their legs using gauze and tape. \nOver the course of the a year, couriers made nine trips from March 2000 to September 2001, smuggling 70,000 to 140,000 ecstasy pills into the United States during that period. Waterstreet said Killinger also imported the drugs in parcels, one of which was intercepted by the U.S. customs officials.\nKillinger, along with Bloomington resident Kip Presslaff, 33, and former IU student Brandon Wackowski, 23, distributed the pills to IU students for typically $15 to $20 each.\nWaterstreet said federal investigators cooperated with local police enforcement to track the case. He said the investigators used computer analysis and collected phone records to follow Killinger.\nWaterstreet said student and local assistance was key in tracking the suspects.\n"The agents took several trips to Bloomington (during which time) they interviewed IU students about the case," he said.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said documents about the investigation could not be released because of the under-cover nature of the investigation.\nWaterstreet said the operation collapsed when two customs agents at Detroit Metro Airport, Michael George and Joseph Trigg, caught couriers Jay Brown, 23, Kristian Walter, 26, and IU Southeast New Albany student Samuel Cruz, 23, as they got off an international flight in October 2001. The agents became suspicious and initially searched one of them and found marijuana seeds and pamphlets on growing pot, Hannum said. Upon closer examination, they discovered 11,081 tablets of ecstasy, weighing 6.6 pounds, strapped to their legs with tape and ace bandages. \nGeorge said in a sworn affidavit that Brown and Cruz provided U.S. Customs with a written statement, thus waiving their Miranda rights, admitting they had been hired to move the drug into the United States.\nDefense attorney Steve Fishman of Detroit reportedly pleaded with the judge to be lenient on his clients.\n"I don't think any of them thought that the consequences could be like this," he said in a March 26 issue of the Detroit Free Press. \nHannum said Killinger's sentence was much less than it could have been.\n"He went from life to eight years, that goes to show you what the justice system is like," he said.\nBesides Killinger, six others were sentenced on Tuesday. Andrew Warnke, Kristian Walter, Brent Mortara, Justin Abram, Jay Brown and Christopher Applegate, were given terms ranging from a day in prison with one year of house arrest to 52 months in prison.\nThe distributors, Preslaff and Wackowski were sentenced earlier to six years in prison for importation of a controlled substance. Other member Jeremy Sly was sentenced earlier to 36 months in prison, and Cruz was sentenced to eight months.\nKreenen, the supplier, remains at large.\nBenjamin Dakin, will be sentenced at a later date, Waterstreet said. \nOverall, Hannum said he agrees with Killinger's lawyer, that many students get involved with selling drugs at IU because they don't understand the serious consequences of their decisions.\n"You sell a pill, and you get about $5 for it," he said. "But if you get caught you get years in prison. It's not worth it"