ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A former mail carrier pleaded guilty Friday for his part in what authorities say is a California-based conspiracy to distribute PCP on the East Coast by way of Appomattox.
Ivery Yelverton, 50, and his cousin were arrested last summer in Texas as they headed to Virginia with 19 gallons of chemicals used to make PCP, a powerful hallucinogen better known as angel dust.
Yelverton pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Roanoke to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute PCP. The government believes he was part of a Los Angeles-centered network that supplied major East Coast cities.
Under his plea agreement, Yelverton will be held responsible only for the amount of chemicals found in the U-Haul he was towing when he was arrested. The agreement also assures that he will not be prosecuted in other jurisdictions where he may have operated, including California and Washington.
Yelverton's cousin, Reginald Booker, was driving when the U-Haul was pulled over on Interstate 40 in the Texas panhandle in July. A deputy said he found the illegal chemicals in the rental trailer after being tipped off to look for the pair.
The government believes Yelverton and Booker were part of a group headed by another cousin, Peter Coley, known as "the god of PCP" in east Los Angeles, said Drug Enforcement Administration agent Michael Johnson of Richmond. California police and drug agents continue to investigate the West Coast end of the conspiracy.
Yelverton and Booker are cooperating with the government and agreed to testify before a Roanoke grand jury this week. Booker, 42, is a former research chemist for the Food and Drug Administration.
Members of the ring would buy chemicals in northern California, mix up the first stage of PCP in Los Angeles and drive the mixture across the country to Virginia, where the final stage would be made, according to court records and testimony at a court hearing in Roanoke earlier this month.
By traveling with the precursor chemicals rather than the finished product, the conspirators reduced their risk if they were caught.
Yelverton's plea agreement allows his attorney to argue that his sentence should be based on the chemicals he was caught transporting.
But the government likely will argue that Yelverton's sentence should be based on the amount of PCP that could have been made with those chemicals - 56 gallons, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis of Roanoke. A sentence based on the amount of drugs rather than the amount of chemicals would be substantially harsher.
Yelverton "was very much a latecomer to this ongoing scheme," his attorney, David Damico, told the judge. "Essentially, he helped drive certain chemicals from California to Virginia."
DEA agent Johnson testified at an earlier hearing that Coley's group was distributing in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Yelverton is alleged to have been the major distributor of PCP in Washington, his hometown - but Damico said that's not true.
Booker still is considering a plea agreement. He faces three charges related to the manufacture and distribution of PCP.
The investigation of Yelverton and Booker in Virginia began after passers-by saw three men tossing garbage bags into Wards Fork Creek in Charlotte County.
DEA tests showed the bags contained a sludge byproduct of the PCP manufacturing process, and the amount indicated that it came from a batch that produced 40 million doses.
Witness descriptions led federal agents to Booker, according to court documents, and a storage bin he rented in Appomattox. He is accused of using the bin to store chemicals brought from California.
In addition to the drug charges, Booker was indicted this week on charges of dumping pollutants into U.S. waters, disposing hazardous waste without a permit and endangering human life.
The creek where the chemicals were found is upriver from a municipal water source, Wolthuis said. The Department of Environmental Quality cleaned up the site, but a supervisor said the agency cannot comment until the case is over.
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