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Sacramento man arrested for allegedly selling opium poppy on eBay
Friday January 31, 2003
By RON HARRIS
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Federal drug agents have arrested a
Sacramento man for allegedly selling opium poppy pods on eBay,
where he described the morphine-laden pods and seeds as a
decoration.
Krsna Lev-Twombly, 30, was arrested at his home Thursday by Drug
Enforcement Administration agents, who say they bought hundreds of
the illegal pods from him last year.
Lev-Twombly appeared in a federal court in Sacramento and was
released on a $50,000 property bond, the U.S. Attorney's office
announced Friday. Lev-Twombly is scheduled to appear in a San Jose
federal courtroom Feb. 6.
Lev-Twombly declined to comment on the case when reached at his
home by The Associated Press.
Prosecutors allege that Lev-Twombly advertised and sold the
dried Papaver Somniferum poppy pods on eBay last year.
Undercover DEA agents bought pods from Lev-Twombly twice, each
time receiving a package of poppies, complete with a receipt, the
U.S. Attorney's Office said. Each pod is about the size of a golf
ball, and is attached to a two-foot-high stalk.
Richard Meyer, a spokesman for the DEA, said only three of 300
species of poppy are illegal, but Lev-Twombly was selling one of
the prohibited kinds.
A San Francisco forensic scientist later confirmed that the pods
contained opium poppy seeds, which in turn contained Morphine,
prosecutors said.
The chemist indicated that the pods were shipped ready to be
``steeped and ingested as a controlled substance with a
psychoactive effect,'' according to the criminal complaint.
Kevin Pursglove, a spokesman for eBay, said the auction Web site
remains vigilant in working with authorities to prevent the sales
of such items online.
``We check the site frequently for any illegal or illicit items
and we remove them as fast as we find them,'' Pursglove said.
In the early days of eBay, some people tried to sell marijuana
on the service before they were quickly shut down, Pursglove said.
Trying to deal drugs online through eBay ``might be one of the
dumbest things you can do,'' Pursglove added. ``Everything is
traceable.''
A search for opium poppy seeds on eBay's site Friday revealed
sellers hawking ``spectacular amazing giant opium poppy seed'' and
150 ``opium poppy seeds.''
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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