Jama Absiya's wife thought he'd killed someone. Why else would armed federal agents be pounding on their door at 6:30 on a Wednesday morning?
Absiya was just finishing his shift as a taxi driver when his wife, Idil, called one day in July with a warning about what awaited him at home.
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Joshua Trujillo / P-I |
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Jama Absiya, at a restaurant with friends, was among 18 men arrested last year by the DEA on accusations they were part of an international khatsmuggling operation. Charges were dropped against Absiya, but five others still are fighting charges, saying they use the stimulant only occasionally. |
A half-dozen men flashing Drug Enforcement Administration badges were encamped around their town house on Yesler Way. Some agents had circled the block; others checked out the backyard. Neighbors were becoming suspicious.
Absiya, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen, couldn't think of what he had done to bring the lawmen to his doorstep. He had fled violence in Somalia and in 1993 came to the United States as a teenage refugee. Now he was suddenly in fear again. He went into hiding briefly, until a friend persuaded him to see a lawyer.
When Absiya went to the federal courthouse in Seattle and learned he was a suspect in a major drug case, he was dumbfounded. His reaction: "You got to be kidding."
They weren't. Absiya said he spent the next three days in a two-person cell on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute khat. The plant produces leaves and shoots that contain cathinone, a stimulant that became a controlled substance under federal drug laws in 1993.
Absiya had become part of the largest khat investigation and bust the DEA had ever undertaken. Last summer, 18 men were arrested in Seattle and 1,000 pounds of khat were seized. In New York, 44 people were arrested and charged with importing 25 tons of the outlawed plant into the country.
Both cases are still working their way through federal courts -- and drawing outrage from African immigrants and community activists. They say chewing khat is a cultural tradition that does no harm -- and the people facing charges didn't fully understand the legal risks they were taking.
Grown high in the mountains of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, khat can deliver a caffeinelike jolt and mild high that can last for a day, according to the Justice Department. The stimulant in the plant rapidly dissipates within 48 to 72 hours as the leaves dry, so shipments are rushed from the fields to Europe, where the plant is legal, then sent to U.S. cities by air-express packages or smuggled in by airline passengers.
When Absiya was young, his father would give him the red stem of the plant to chew on while he studied for school exams. When guests came to the house, it was offered as a social grace and conversation starter. Truck drivers and those doing long readings of the Quran would use it to help with concentration.
Earlier this month, charges were dropped against Absiya and three others -- considered to be among the least involved in the importation and distribution of the seized khat. Two other defendants had charges dismissed because of possible misidentification. Still others took plea deals and are waiting for sentencing on lesser charges in July.
Only five of the original 18 have decided to fight the charges. Facing a trial May 7 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, they argue they aren't part of any drug-trafficking conspiracy and only occasionally use khat. The rest took plea deals and are waiting for sentencing on lesser charges in July.
Not all those indicted are U.S. citizens like Absiya. Any drug conviction could lead to deportation.
"Everybody gets scared these days," Absiya said.
For Absiya, the scariest part of the proceedings was the recent settlement conference with U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez.
Martinez told the defendants that in the Western Washington, 97 percent of federal drug charges end in a guilty plea before trial. Of those who choose to have their day in court, 95 percent are convicted -- by juries that are predominantly white.
"My job is to get them to understand the gravity of the situation they are in," Martinez said later. "One of the things I definitely wanted them to understand is that whether you think the law is a good one or a bad one, it does not matter. ... Until Congress changes the law, that is the law."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Roe, who is prosecuting the case in Seattle, said she believes the defendants knew chewing khat was a crime in this country.
"I suspect they did know it was illegal," she said. "They just did not think it was significantly illegal."
The Seattle case stemmed from a tip that came out of the investigation in New York, Roe said. The point was not to send a message to the community but to fulfill the obligation to prosecute where there was evidence of a crime.
Absiya said he can't understand why his friends are facing prison terms and deportation.
Before his arrest, he chewed khat a couple of times a month. He was looking forward to the day when his 4-year-old son would be old enough to sit with him, share a bundle of khat leaves and talk about life. Now he says he will never chew again.
Absiya said some of the stigma attached to the plant comes from within the Somali community. Some complain about the wasted time and money -- $30 to $80 for each group chew.
But still Absiya questions why the government is so concerned about khat. The accidents he sees while driving his cab aren't caused by it. No one is sent to the hospital because of a khat overdose. He laughs when he talks about federal authorities wanting to send the people who have pleaded guilty to drug rehab.
"It's something you do when you sit and talk nicely with your friends for a couple hours," he said.
The prosecution has a different take. "These defendants were looking to make easy money at the expense of their fellow immigrants," then-U.S. Attorney John McKay said when the arrests were made. "We will not let their greed shatter the hopes and dreams of other hard-working immigrant families who have fled the chaos of their homeland."
Even though he's been spared a criminal conviction, Absiya's future is clouded. Now, whenever a potential employer asks him if he's ever been charged with a crime, he'll have to answer yes.
"If you are a criminal, you are not going to get a job," he said.
Even worse, when he and his son walk down the street and see a police officer, his son asks:
"Is he going to arrest you? Is he going to take you away?"
KHAT AT A GLANCE
WHAT IS IT? Khat is a vegetable stimulant chewed like tobacco that can create a euphoric buzz. It comes from fresh leaves, shoots and twigs of an evergreen shrub or small tree found in eastern Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula.
IS IT HARMFUL? The World Health Organization has reported psychosis in people addicted to khat and that it can result in low birth weight of infants born to addicted mothers.
WHAT'S IN IT? The active ingredients are cathinone and cathine, classified as controlled substances by the United Nations. Possession is a felony in the U.S.
WHAT'S THE ISSUE? Chewing khat is a tradition for some cultures, and some experts believe it is only mildly addictive and shouldn't be labeled a narcotic.