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_-OS-1996 13 42 FROM SAN FRANCISCO PRS TO 9L3089445252 P.OS _...FDA Consumer, October 1994--- Investigators' Reports Page since December 1992. In addition, a member of the Fayette County Narcotics Tt Force told FDA's Mathews that GHB was the number one drug problem in Fayette County schools and that Naturally Good was the source for most of the GHB. At that time, FDA and the U.S. Attorney`s Office in Atlanta began the wor} on a search and seizure warrant for Saffar's Naturally Goad store, while the agency continued to gather evidence against Saffar. FDA investigator Cheryl Dyer, who is with FDA's Greenville, S.C., resident post, visited Saffar's store twice in late May. She told Saffar she was a friend of "Pam," Mathews' alias, and he sold her several :~ottles of GHB. On June 15, she phoned Saffar and ordered 12 bottles of GHB to be shipped to Starr, S.C., a suburb of Greenville. The GHB arrived June 22, and on July 1, Dyer called to order four or five more cases. Saffar said it would take at least a month be Fore he would be ab] to send her that much_ The next day FDA investigators from the Atlanta office, FDA agents from tY agency's Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI}, and locs.l police, armed wit a search warrant, searched Saffar's store and seized 22 battles of GHB. With Saffar's consent, OCI agents also searched a near:~y storage shed Saffar leased and his home, where they found 75 bottles a:zd $60,000. On July 12, Dyer received a letter from Saffar saying that FDA was investigating him, and if the government contacted her, size should tell them had sold Pier shark cartilage. On Aug. 26, Dyer received a letter from Saffar stating, "There's plenty of stuff in stock now," but that the GHB was in liquid form Lnstead of the powde he had been selling. This was the evidence Dyer and the other investigators had been seeking, because several of the overdose victims said the GHB they bought from Saffar was in liquid form. On Sept. 8, Dyer went to Morrow and bought a case of 1Lquid GHB from Saffar, and the next afternoon, called to say she wanted to buy five more cases. Saffar agreed and told her to come by the store in about 30 minutes. Instead of Dyer, other FDA investigators and agents and l~~cal police showed L with a warrant issued earlier in the day. OCI agents arrested Saffar and charged him with knowingly delivering for introduction in :o interstate comme>: a misbranded drug. They seized five cases of liquid GHB a: his Morrow store a storage shed. Fourteen more cases were seized at a store Saffar owned in Marietta, Ga. U. S. Attorney Gerrilyn Brill charged Saffar on Dec. 9, 1993. Saffar is currently serving his prison sentence. At press time, the seized GHB was stil in FDA's possession. Personnel from FDA's Atlanta office and Office of Criminal Investigations provided Georgia narcotics authorities and the Georgia Ge:ieral Assembly background information on the dangers and extent of GHB d:uq abuse. On March 1994, Georaia became rhp-first Grate to make.GHB a controlled substance st~i ~e to state and local law enforcement. ==iSori S e in