A sting operation in rural Georgia hoped to catch convenience-store clerks knowingly selling supplies to manufacture methamphetamine. But critics say the campaign entrapped workers with limited English skills who may not have understood the questions they were being asked, the New York Times reported Aug. 4.Federal officials, under Operation Meth Merchant, charged 49 clerks with selling meth-making materials, using hidden microphones and cameras as evidence. However, a review of those recordings leaves unclear the question of whether the clerks knowingly supplied cold medicine, matches, and camping fuel for the purpose of making meth.
Of those arrested, 44 were Indian immigrants, and many knew little English other than phrases used to conduct business with customers. So, when an undercover agent told a clerk he needed supplies to "finish up a cook" -- the clerks may have figured that the customer was using slang for having a barbecue, not cooking meth.
"This is not even slang language like 'gonna,' 'wanna,'" said clerk Malvika Patel. "'Cook' is very clear; it means food."
"They're not really paying attention to what they're being told," said Steve Sadow, a lawyer representing some of the clerks. "Their business is: I ring it up, you leave, I've done my job. Call it language or idiom or culture, I'm not sure you're able to show they know there's anything wrong with what they're doing."
"This is the first time I heard this -- I don't know how to pronounce -- this meta-meta something," said Hajira Ahmed, whose husband was jailed for selling cold medicine and antifreeze to a government informant.
U.S. Attorney David Nahmas countered: "It's not that they should have known. In virtually or maybe all of the cases, they did know." He said that the investigation was launched after local sheriffs complained that certain stores were catering to meth-lab operators.
In one case, an informant asked a clerk for Pseudo 60, a potent cold drug containing pseudoephedrine. The clerk replied, "Police guy came here said don't sell. Misuse. Public misuse."
The informant replied: "I know what they're doing with it, because that's what I'm going to do with it."
"Yah," the clerk replied, "public misuse." The informant then found another cold medicine, and the clerk told him he was only allowed to sell one bottle at a time. When the informant asked if a friend could come in and buy a second bottle, the clerk replied: "Yeah, but I cannot sell two to one guy."
Boston University School of Public Health 
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