MICHAEL BRYANT / Inquirer
DEA agent Carlos Aquino with prescription drugs seized in the Bansal investigation. A former Philadelphia cop, he valued interagency cooperation but thought the case looked small-time.
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DrugNet, Chapter 2: Origins
Suspicious packages at the airport lead a DEA agent to Chester. A son leaves India - but not his family's pill business.
A month passed. Then in April, Dabney called. Could they meet in Chester?
Patil said, How about the Friendly's on Ridge Avenue? It was closer.
Sure, Dabney said.
NEAR FRIENDLY'S, ROXBOROUGH
Carlos stood by as a detective flipped on the recorder:
"Today's date is 4-7-04," the detective said. "Time now is approximately 4:30. This will be a consensual intercept by Richard Dabney and two Indian males."
The feds hoped Dabney could get the Indians to admit they were selling drugs - or, better still, provide details about a larger operation, anything that might lead to the smuggler behind it all.
But when Dabney met the Indians at Friendly's, his hostile, accusatory tone implied he'd had no idea the packages contained drugs. It caught the Indians off guard, as well as the agents listening in.
"If I get caught with drugs, I got a problem," Dabney told Akhil and Patil. "... Either you or the police set me up."
Patil was skeptical. "But you knew what we were doing. We were clear on that."
"You said Viagra and antibiotics... . You guys are playing games, man."
"If we were playing games with you, we wouldn't be here."
Dabney kept talking, but agents listening by wire already knew the whole thing was a disaster. Dabney dominated the session, in a clumsy attempt to exonerate himself. The Indians said little. They seemed unsophisticated, small-timers.
Besides, the agents already had another, promising lead.
While searching Dabney's storefront in Chester, they found a letter from an angry woman in Olympia, Wash. She'd returned 50 tablets of Valium and a MasterCard receipt for $154. She'd ordered 1-milligram tabs, not 0.5-milligram.
The woman's letter was addressed to "Rx-mart.com." The FBI quickly traced the Web site. It was in Texas - and, ultimately, would lead them to Australia.
FRIENDLY'S, ROXBOROUGH
Akhil and Patil dismissed the Dabney encounter, too.
Dabney might be hoping to scam them out of more money. Well, Akhil and Patil were moving to a new system anyway.
Akhil's father had put them in touch with an Indian couple living in Queens, N.Y., David and Elizabeth Armstrong. From now on, the Armstrongs would handle the shipping.
