Naive Gringo Pill Popped Below Border

Lindell bristles at some of the remarks made by Nogales Police Chief Ramses Arce Fierro. "He must be quite a medical doctor," Lindell says. He's particularly annoyed at Arce's comment to a reporter that his wife must be taking a gargantuan dose of the narcotic to justify Lindell's large purchase.

"She's got several problems," Lindell explains. "She has problems with her feet, she lost a husband in a plane crash, there have been some traumatic experiences in our lives. She's been under the care of our family doctor for 20 years, and the doctor knows whether she should be taking [Valium] or not."

Lindell delivers the same message that he delivered to the media before his release. "I want to get the news out. I want senior citizens not to have the kind of problems I had." He says that no one should go pill-shopping in Mexico because it's "too risky with the amount of corruption they have to deal with."

What's corrupt, in Lindell's estimation, is that police focus more on the buyer of illegal drugs than the seller. He skirts the fact that if he had gotten a Mexican prescription, even the large amount of Valium he purchased wouldn't have been illegal in Mexico.

Lindell says his wife is prescribed three 10-milligram pills a day. That means that if he were bringing in a month's supply of 270 pills for her, she would have to be taking three 10-milligram pills a day.

Lindell goes on, "If a teen or senior is arrested buying pills off the street, then they should be arrested. If a person walks into a pharmacy with a prescription and the pharmacy sells it to him, the police chief should be busting the pharmacy."

He is, of course, referring to his U.S. prescription.

Lindell wonders how he got away with his "crime" in March and not in May. "The first time [purchasing Valium] I was not arrested," he says, contending his protocol was the same. "The second time I was. They're not enforcing the laws."

Ed Schwer has worked with various U.S. law enforcement agencies for 14 years. He is currently on disability. In his mid-30s, Schwer has been a customer of Mexican pharmacies, as well as an investigator of cases involving drug purchases in Mexico. Schwer buys antibiotics and thyroid medication in Mexico for his wife regularly. When you live close to the border, it's the thing everybody does because, if you know what you're doing, it's easier and cheaper.

"I've never had a single problem in 20-plus years," he says.

Based on the cases he's worked, Schwer says, people tend to have problems when they buy large quantities of drugs like muscle relaxants.

Schwer says that over the past few months, coinciding with the publicity over Lindell's arrest, people are expressing more caution about buying prescription drugs in Mexico.

He says many Americans demonstrate a lot of "attitude" when they go south to buy controlled substances.

"Some Americans behave as if [Mexicans] should be thankful they are there spending money," Schwer says. "If they break the law, they expect Mexicans to look the other way."

Or be convinced to do so for a few pesos.

Schwer says Mexican law enforcement has changed since the late '80s and early '90s when it was common to buy your way out of small offenses through a bribe, or mordida. "Law enforcement down there is more professional, there's an eagerness now [to stay on the straight and narrow]. They are paid more, trained better and taking more pride in their jobs."

Americans should not be critical of a country for enforcing its own laws, he stresses. Imagine how little sympathy authorities would have for a Mexican if he did not follow U.S. law and was discovered with the amount of narcotics that Lindell possessed.

A U.S. citizen should know that he's committing a crime in Mexico, Schwer says, when he obtains "medication that he reasonably should know is a controlled substance in the U.S." without a Mexican prescription.

Even though Burkhart and the mainstream media tried to garner sympathy for Lindell because of his age, Schwer says age has nothing to do with guilt or innocence in the United States or Mexico.

"It's ridiculous to bring that up," he says. "It doesn't matter how old he is. Lindell broke the law when it would have been easy and inexpensive to get a prescription from a Mexican doctor."

Lindell got himself jailed for nearly two months, Schwer says, over "a matter of $20."

E-mail susy.buchanan@newtimes.com, or call 602-229-8440.