ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A Los Angeles couple accused of running a cross-country PCP manufacturing ring that operated between California and central Virginia were indicted Friday by a grand jury in Roanoke.
Peter Coley, 38, was charged under the federal drug kingpin law with running an organization of more than five people making and selling PCP, also known as angel dust. He also was charged with seven other counts, including conspiracy. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life sentence.
His girlfriend, Denise Charlerie, 28, also is charged with conspiracy. She is accused of renting cars, trucks and trailers to haul chemicals across the country and of buying a house in Charlotte County to be used as a PCP lab. In January 1995, authorities seized $70,000 from Charlerie at the Los Angeles International Airport. The government says the money was drug proceeds.
Coley's group is accused of acquiring the necessary chemicals in California, mixing up the first stage of PCP there, then driving the chemicals to Virginia, where the process would be completed. The chemicals were smuggled across the country in rental trailers full of old furniture, according to indictments in the case.
Two men have pleaded guilty in the conspiracy and admitted renting storage facilities in Appomattox and Charlotte counties to store chemicals.
Coley is accused of making PCP since the late 1970s, working with "major PCP distributors" around the country. He maintained a distribution point in Washington, D.C., from which he would fill orders for 10 to 20 gallons of PCP at a time and be paid between $40,000 and $50,000 a month, the indictment charged. Each 10-gallon lot of PCP is equal to "tens of millions of dosage units," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Coley is also charged with polluting a Charlotte County creek and disposing of hazardous waste without a permit, charges that stem from an incident last May when several witnesses saw three men in a U-Haul tossing garbage bags off a bridge.
Police found bags of PCP sludge - the byproduct from the manufacturing process - in the stream. That began the investigation by federal drug agents in Virginia that led to Coley, who already was under investigation by police and the Drug Enforcement Administration in California.
Two of his cousins - the men who pleaded guilty in Roanoke last month - have cooperated with prosecutors against Coley in an effort to reduce their sentences. They were arrested transporting chemicals to make PCP across the country. Another man also has been indicted and has yet to enter a plea.
The government plans to seize Charlerie's property in Charlotte County where, the indictment said, the PCP was made.
Coley and Charlerie were arrested in California two weeks ago and are expected to be brought to Roanoke soon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis said.
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