YONET Arrests meth 'smurf' (California)

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_3473455

By Democrat Staff

YONET got lucky and bagged a "smurf" Wednesday.
But unlike their happy-go-lucky blue TV counterparts who live lives in harmony with nature, the smurfs in the drug world make their living by buying thousands of pills used to manufacture meth.

The Yolo Narcotic Enforcement Team recovered 1,000 pseudoephedrine pills in the residence of Clemente Zavala Gonzalez on Wednesday after trailing the suspect when he and several others were spotted buying boxes of pills.

According to the Commander of YONET, Roy Giorgi, Gonzalez was arrested for the possession of the pills because pseudoephedrine is the main ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

Gonzalez is one of those people known in the drug world as a "smurf," or one who will travel from "county to county" stopping at retail stores such as Walgreen's, Rite Aids, Targets, Wal-Marts and Food 4 Less and purchase two to three boxes of pseudoephedrine. The Smurfs will then sell the pills to a person making methamphetamine or use it for their own lab.

Agents from YONET followed Gonzalez who stopped at numerous retail stores in Woodland and in the counties of Sutter, Colusa and Glenn. He bought two boxes of pseudoephedrine pills from each store for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamines, Giorgi explained.

On his journey, Giorgi explained, Gonzalez would perform "counter surveillance" in an attempt to lose any law enforcement officers and to determine whether law enforcement officers were following him.

Giorgi said, on Thursday, agents obtained a warrant for the storage locker located at the Powerline Mini Storage in Olivehurst and found a "boxed up methamphetamine laboratory."

The lab included: a stained 22-liter vessel which still contained a quarter inch of a chemical liquid, a heating mantle, a stained drug, with about 15 pounds of iodine crystals, red phosphorous, several bottles of sulfuric acid and processed pseudoephedrine.

The amount of chemicals found are capable of producing between eight to ten pounds of methamphetamine, according to Giorgi. Agents also recovered about one pound of methamphetamine, along with packaging and heat sealers.

YONET agents are continuing their investigation and currently looking for Gonzalez's partner, another man, who contributed to crime, Giorgi said.