The Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Thursday, April 21,1983
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Drug ring cracked;
12 Texans arrested
United Press International
HOUSTON —Drug agents crack
ed one of the nation’s “largest and
most highly organized” drug traffick
ing rings with the arrests of an esti
mated 60 people in eight states in an
investigation codenamed Operation
Bushmaster, authorities said.
Marion Hambrick, agent-in-
charge of the Houston office of the
Drug Enforcement Administration,
said federal agents Wednesday began
arresting 60 suspects on charges of
shipping and selling heroine, cocaine,
methamphetamines and marijuana in
eight states.
“It was one of the nation’s largest
and most highly organized drug
rings,” Hambrick said.
The ring, which shipped much of
its drug supply from South America
and Mexico, operated in Texas,
Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Kan
sas, Colorado, California, and Arizo
na for at least five years, officials said.
Federal officials named their inves
tigation Operation Bushmaster after
a poisonous, noctural snake in South
America called a bushmaster.
“This should have a definite impact
on the cocaine, methamphetamine,
marijuana and heroine traffic in these
states. We feel the people they were
supplying are definitely going to be
without a supplier for a while,” he
said.
In Texas, 12 people were arrested,
including an attorney and two other
men believed to the ring leaders, au
thorities said.
Hambrick said agents planned to
arrest 60 people throughout the eight
states, but complete arrest figures and
details on seizures in other states were
not available, he said.
Hambrick identifed one of the key
figures in the group as Dempsey
Merida, 55, a transmission shop own
er of Houston. Federal agents
arrested Merida at his home about 6
a.m. Wednesday and seized various
drugs and weapons.
“We seized about 45 pounds of
methamphetamine — worth about
$2.5 million, one pound of cocaine,
over 100 rifles, shotguns and pistols,
five machine guns and thousands of
dollars in cash,” Hambrick said.
Merida was charged with conspira
cy to violate federal narcotics laws.
Two other major figures in the
drug gang were identified as William
Thomas Follis, 51, a used car sales
man of Houston and Charles T. New-
lin, 36, a Houston attorney.
Authorities identified the other
arrested Texas suspects as: Wesley
Lee Williams, 38, of Houston; Jay
Michael Knapper, 30, of Houston;
James Warren Edwards, 35, of Au
stin; David Lee Merida, 22, of Hous
ton; Hayes Phillip Jackson, 35, of
Houston; Anthony Walker Stone-
dale, 26, of Houston; Billy Ray Lilly,
39, of Spring; Jeffrey D. Morales, 27,
of Galveston, and Dean Claude
McCauley, 44, of Austin.
Hambrick said all were charged
with conspiracy to violate federal
drug laws. Other drug charges were
pending, he said.
During the one-year investigation,
law officers seized at least 10 metham
phetamine laboratories which the
group operated in southeast and cen
tral Texas, Hambrick said.
He said the crackdown involved 16
law enforcement agencies through
out the Southwest.
“I think this type of coordinated
law enforcement investigation epito
mizes what the U.S. Attorney General
was striving for when he directed the
creation of federal task forces
throughout the United States to key
in on organized crime groups which
are trafficking in drugs which would
impact more than one area,” Ham
brick said.
Emergency Care
needs new radio
I Hailing the 100th anniversary of Muster,
David Womack, a senior marketing major
from Houston, plays his bugle in front of
I the Academic Building. Muster, the
photo by Jeanette. Hennigan
ceremony that honors students and former
students who h.ave died during the past
year, begins at 7 p.m. tonight in G.
Rollie White Coliseum.
Israel to keep territory
United Press International
[Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
[tin, in a rebuff of President
||[an, said the Jewish state’s anne-
Ition of Syria’s Golan Heights is
reversible and rejected any restric
ts on Jewish settlement in occu-
ed territory.
Speaking in Jerusalem Wednesday
to veterans of his Herut Party, Begin
also said Israel hopes for an agree
ment on the withdrawal of Tel Aviv’s
30,000 troops from Lebanon despite
the “complicated situation” there.
The thrust of the prime minister’s
speech was a pointed rejoinder to
Reagan’s assurances to Syria that
U.N. Security Council Resolution 242
implies an Israeli withdrawal from
the Golan Heights Israel annexed 18
months ago.
“The law, the jurisdiction and the
administration of the state of Israel is
in force and will remain in force on
the Golan Heights,” Begin said to
boisterous clapping. Israel seized the
Golan Heights in a 1967 war.
Child must have
nother new liver
by Craig Harris
Battalion Reporter
The Texas A&M Emergency Care
Team needs almost $20,000 to im
prove its radio communications sys
tem, says Vance Riley, chief of ambu
lance operations.
“This system (we have) just isn’t
adequate for the number of emergen
cy cases we handle,” Riley said.
The ECT now is accepting bids for
the new radio equipment, Riley said.
Funding for the new radio system
probably will come from the Develop
ment Office or the Association of For
mer Students, he said.
But the team won’t have the system
for at least several weeks, Riley said.
The medical team now has an old
er system that consists of one radio in
the dispatch room, one radio in one of
its two ambulances and two hand
held radios.
The team’s system is a very high
frequency unit and doesn’t always op
erate properly, he said. Most hospitals
operate on ultra-high frequency. St.
Joseph Hospital in Bryan soon will
switch to UHF.
The system the care team plans to
purchase will include both UHF and
VHF frequencies.
“If a patient is unconscious when
we take him in, we cannot take him to
the (A.P. Beutel) Health Center, but
we take him to St. Joseph,” Riley said.
“We need to be able to talk to St.
Joseph, but with our radio, we can’t
pick them up unless we’re within a
mile of them — and that is a danger
ous situation.”
The radio is used to communicate
with the hospital about the patient’s
condition, the number of patients in
volved and emergency care at the
scene, Riley said.
The Emergency Care Team, which
sends its ambulances to emergency
Team
system
situations on Texas A&M property in
Brazos County, averages about three
cases a day. Half of the runs are
emergency situations, while the rest
of the runs are spent transporting pa
tients from the health center to
another hospital.
“The demand for the service has
more than doubled since we got our
first ambulance in January of 1980,”
Riley said.
“I originally asked for the new
equipment in Feburary of 1982,”
Riley said, “but the money got caught
in red tape and we still haven’t re
ceived it yet.”
Because the care team is a volun
teer organization and is run much like
a volunteer fire department, Riley
said, University officials have been re
luctant to allocate the $20,000.
Four of the team members, includ
ing Riley, live in the health center and
are paid a salary, but the other team
members are volunteers.
United Press International
[MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Brandon
ll’s new liver has been hopelessly
[maged by a blood clot and doctors
( it must be replaced again within a
days or the world’s second
[ungest liver transplant patient will
["It’s possible we have no more than
[day or two, perhaps we have a
[ek,” said Dr. Peter Whitington,
andon’s pediatrician.
[The 13-month-old Walnut, Miss.,
lid was listed in critical but stable
ndition at LeBonheur Children’s
plical Center, where he was receiv-
5follow-up care from a liver trans
it one week ago today.
“We finished tests on Brandon,
the artery going to the liver is
fitted,” Dr. James Williams, chief
transplant surgeon for the University
of Tennessee Center for the Health
Sciences, said Wednesday.
The 1 -millimeter clot in the hepatic
artery was revealed by an arterio
gram, a test conducted to determine
the flow of blood through the trans
planted liver.
Brandon’s mother, Billie Hall, who
last week gained national attention by
testifying before a House subcommit
tee in Washington hours before Bran
don was rushed into surgery, was
shaken by the latest news.
Doctors said the second transplant
should be simpler and less time-
consuming than the first.
Brandon needs a liver from a child
weighing between 10 and 25 pounds
with O-positive blood type.
ongressman says
PA ignoring fears
jin
.S.
United Press International
[WASHINGTON — A Texas con-
hssman said Wednesday the En-
jronmental Protection Agency’s
budget proposal cutting hazar
ds and toxic waste programs shows
administration is ignoring
jtizens’ fears.
In testimony before a House com-
[ittee, Rep. Bill Patman, D-Texas,
lid the EPA’s 1984 budget request
Remonstrates that the administra-
pi is simply not listening to what
feople in this country are saying ab-
( fit hazardous waste.”
He noted concerned residents of
[ay City, Texas, were organizing
ght patrols of the back roads of
fatagorda County to prevent illegal
idnight dumping by chemical waste
aulers.
“These people aren’t far-out en
vironmental extremists,” he said.
“They are ordinary working people
concerned that unsafe hazardous
waste disposal practices are shorten
ing the lives of their children and in
creasing their risks of cancer.”
He urged the House to increase the
EPA’s budget requests for hazardous
and toxic waste programs to at least
current funding, adjusted for infla
tion.
“Anything less than this amount
will result in a giant step backwards in
our national effort to control hazar
dous chemical wastes,” he said.
He said that although the EPA has
requested more money for Super
fund response actions, it .would not
substitute “for careful attention to the
hazardous waste and toxic substances
programs.”
TV camera a ‘two-by-four’
Zindler ‘tells it like it is’
by Lezlee Hinson
Battalion Reporter
“You have to hit a jackass on the
head with a two-by-four to get its
attention,” says Houston news com
mentator Marvin Zindler. And, he
adds, a television camera can serve
quite well in the place of a two-by-
four.
Zindler, a well-known consumer
advocate in Houston, spoke at the
Sterling C. Evans Library on
Wednesday in recognition of Na
tional Library Week.
His daily commentary on KTRK-
TV, Channel 13, often is controver
sial. One of his most famous investi
gations resulted in the closing of the
infamous Chicken Ranch in La
Grange — a place, Zindler said,
some older Aggies should know a lot
about. The movie and Broadway
play, “The Best Little Whorehouse
in Texas,” were based on Zindler’s
report.
Zindler’s two-by-four — the tele
vision camera — was instrumental in
the Chicken Ranch investigation,
but in most cases, he said, the
camera isn’t necessary. Businesses
are notified, by letter, when a com
plaint is lodged against them and
about 75 percent of the complaints
are resolved without further action,
Zindler said.
If the complaint is unanswered, a
personal phone call — suggesting
the possibility of a personal visit
from Zindler and his camera crew —
will usually prompt the company to
consider the matter more carefully,
he said.
Some companies, however, re
quire still more persuasion, Zindler
said, and a personal visit often is
required. He said he is amazed how
often company representatives
claim they had planned to take care
of the matter on the very day that
Zindler shows up — usually un
announced.
Academic
Council
to meet
The Academic Council will meet
at 1:30 p.m. Friday in 601 Rudder.
Items scheduled for discussion
include:
— addition and withdrawal of
courses.
— changes in curricula.
— changes in degree programs in
the Department of Engineering
Technology.
— redesignation of the Institute
of Statistics as the Department of
Statistics.
— changes in the admission poli
cy of the Graduate College.
— changes in the University
Rules and Regulations.
— approval of candidates for
graduate, undergraduate, veterin
ary medicine and medicine degrees.
President Frank E. Vandiver will
preside over the meeting.
staff photo by Eric Evan Lee
Marvin Zindler, a Houston news commentator, speaks at
Sterling C. Evans Library Wednesday.
The purpose of television, Zind
ler said, is to keep the public in
formed. And reporters must tell it
like it is, even if it isn’t nice, he said.
Zindler said that his segment of
Eyewitness News often is responsi
ble for losses in advertising re
venues. Businesses sometimes stop
advertising on Channel 13 when
they become the target of one of
Zindler’s investigations, he said. But
that is just one of the consequences
that must be accepted. Advertisers
often think that they can control the
media through their advertising
purchases, Zindler said, but thatjust
isn’t true.
Zindler warns that the television
camera — like the two-by-four —
must be used with extreme caution.
Both are powerful, effective tools
but can be dangerous if not handled
with care.
inside
Around Town 4
Classified 6
Local 3
Opinions . 2
Sports 9
State 5
National 7
Police Beat 4
What’s up 12
forecast
Cloudy to partly cloudy today with
a 30 percent chance of thunder
showers and a high of 75. A 40
percent chance of thundershowers
tonight with a low near 57. Partly
cloudy Friday with a 30 percent
chance of morning showers and a
high near 79.