Students indicted in drug bust

Several IU students were among 14 people indicted on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute the party drug ecstasy Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Detroit.\nAmong those indicted by the Grand Jury are junior Brandon Wackowski, senior Jeremy Slyh, senior Brent Mortara and IU Southeast senior Samuel Cruz.\nDavid Ashenfelter, an IU alumnus and reporter for the Detroit Free Press, said eight of the 14 people indicted stood mute on Tuesday to charges of conspiring to import and distribute controlled substances. In addition, six of the defendants are charged with a second count of aiding and abetting the importation of ecstasy. Ashenfelter said each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. \nSeveral of the other people indicted were arrested in Cincinnati and other locations. Ashenfelter said while the majority of the 14 defendants were released on their own recognizance, one remains in custody and at least one other is at large, as of Wednesday. \nIn a sworn affidavit, Mike George, a special agent with the United States Customs Service, said Jay Brown, 23, Kristian Walter, 26, and Cruz, 23, arrived together at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Oct. 2, 2001 from Amsterdam, Netherlands. George said the customs inspectors discovered 11,081 tablets of ecstasy, weighing 6.6 pounds, strapped to their legs with tape and ace bandages. George said Brown and Cruz provided U.S. Customs with a written statement, thus waiving their Miranda rights, admitting they had been recruited to smuggle the drug into the U.S. from Amsterdam for $10,000 each. \nThe federal indictment, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet, claimed that Brown, Walter, Cruz and several others acted as couriers for Brent Killinger, Kip Presslaff and Wackowski, who allegedly distributed the drugs to IU, among other locations. The indictment claims that Wackowski, Presslaff and Killinger pooled resources to purchase ecstasy from a Dutch individual named Koen Michael Frans Van Riemsdjik Kreenen, or "Koon," and arranged for the couriers to smuggle the drugs into the U.S. George's statement revealed that on October 2, the three couriers, or "mules," as Ashenfelter referred to them, were supposed to meet an unidentified individual, who would distribute the drugs, at the Indianapolis Airport.\nA pre-trial conference has been scheduled for July 9, in which all 14 defendants are expected to enter a plea of not guilty in the court of U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, Ashenfelter said.