Dealer of Chemicals for Use in PCP Gets Prison Term
The owner of a Paramount chemical warehouse, whom authorities described as having been one of the state’s leading dealers of supplies for production of the illegal drug PCP, was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in prison and admonished by the judge for his lack of morals.
Jonathan Sasuga, 61, arrested in a March, 1983, raid that uncovered enough chemicals to make more than 3 million PCP cigarettes, pleaded guilty to three counts of selling such chemicals to people known to be involved in manufacturing illegal drugs.
Taking the witness stand at his sentencing hearing, Sasuga told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer that he should not be incarcerated because he was not aware of a law forbidding the continued sale of the chemicals, which took effect three months before his arrest.
Ringer brushed off the excuse, calling Sasuga’s conduct “complete, self-centered immorality.”
“He engaged in a dirty business,” the judge said. “He engaged in a dirty business that was for a while technically legal.”
Defense attorney Paul Fitzgerald immediately filed an appeal. Sasuga was jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail.
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