After a "three-year investigation into illegal Quaalude trafficking, federal authorities have announced the arrest of two Bay Area lab workers," Kevin Yan and Thomas Fairley, who helped make the drugs. Also, Quaaludes are still around? Groovy. (Please chime in with any and all noteworthy hazy-California-in-the-'70s-Quaalude-popping tales, readers of a certain age!) KTVU reports that lab worker Fairley's "alleged drug racket stretched literally from California to the New York Island," where he used his chemist training to "concoct dangerous poisons and advance his personal wealth."
Fairley produced the downer drug at an East Bay laboratory called CalCoast Labs, creating and distributing more than 100,000 Quaaludes worth more than $3.5 million.