Largest meth bust in area nets arrest of Canadian

A Canadian woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony methamphetamine related charges, wrapping up the largest pseudoe-phedrine/methamphetamine case ever handled in this district.

Krystina Randles, 36, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada was arrested June 26, 2003, in West Midlands, England. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute pseudoephedrine knowing it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine between October 2001 and December 2002, and attempt to commit the same crime on or about June 3, 2002.

Three others involved, including a resident of Fisk, Mo., have also pleaded guilty to similar charges; one of them, Fayez Abazid, 41, of Detroit, Las Vegas and Dar'a, Syria, was sentenced Oct. 27, 2003, to 175 months in prison.

Randles will be sentenced July 15, along with Dan Frankel, 46, of San Clemente, Calif. Raymond Stewart Jr., 49, of Fisk, will be sentenced May 3.

Authorities seized more than 4 million pills and $1 million in the case.

According to a release from the U.S. District court, the conspiracy among the four suspects began when Randles met Frankel while working at an Internet mail order company in Ontario. He purchased large quantities of pseudoephedrine and sold it to methamphetamine manufacturers for a substantial profit. During 2001 Randles shipped approximately 30 cases of pseudoe-phedrine to Frankel each month. Frankel encouraged Randles to start her own business and began traveling to her home in Ontario to pick up the pills.

Randles also became acquainted with Stewart, owner of Stewart and Son's Grocery of Fisk. Randles agreed to sell Stewart 48 bottles of pseudoephedrine pills at $12.50 per bottle and instructed him to send cash or a money order in U.S. currency as payment upon receipt of the pills. Stewart then sold the pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine manufacturers for as much as $60 per bottle.

In November 2001 a shipment of pseudoephedrine pills from Randles was seized by the U.S. Customs authorities. On June 3, 2002, another package was seized at the O'Hare International Airport Foreign Mail Unit. The package contained 8,640 pseudoephedrine tablets and carried Randles' return address.

Federal prosecuting attorney Abbie Crites-Leoni said those seizures at Customs was what started the whole investigation.

In October 2002 U.S. Postal Inspectors intercepted another package from Randles to Stewart. About a month before that, Randles met Abazid and sold him approximately 70 cases of pseudoephedrine. On Aug. 24, 2003, Abazid was arrested in St. Louis with more than 42 kilograms of pseudoephedrine and nearly $200,000 in his possession.

Crites-Leoni said that the arrests and convictions of these subjects takes some major drug players off the streets. The 4 million pills seized weighed over 1,500 pounds which is the equivalent to about 750 pounds of methamphetamine.

"We prevented that much methamphetamine from getting out on the street," she said. "That's a pretty big deal."

Randles now faces a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine along with a three-year period of supervised release.