At their store selling camping gear in southern Tennessee, the Honeycutt brothers pretended not to notice when profits soared from the sale of a water purifier — a product also used to cook up the drug methamphetamine.
Their unusual tale, which calls to mind the tale of amateur chemists in the hit television series “Breaking Bad,” was examined Wednesday by the US Supreme Court.
It all began in 2008, in an all-American setting: a military surplus outlet, sandwiched between a garage and a fast-food joint, on a road busy with pick-up trucks.
The “Brainerd Army Store” in the city of Chattanooga is a family business, owned by the Honeycutt father as well as Tony, one of his sons. Terry, the second son, is an employee, in charge of the cash register and inventory.
In the shop you can find all you might need for the outdoors life, from tents and duvets to walking boots, backpacks and hurricane lamps.
Also on its shelves was “Polar Pure,” a useful iodine-based product for purifying water.
Knowing that a small vial of the purifier could decontaminate 2,000 liters of water, Terry was surprised when he saw unusual-looking customers beginning to buy up to 12 of them.
He went as far as to speak to the police one day in 2008. The officers confirmed that the iodine crystals in Polar Pure could be used to make methamphetamine, and advised him to stop selling.
Sales continued to rise to the point that Polar Pure became the shop’s leading source of revenue. The Honeycutts had clearly become suppliers to clandestine laboratories throughout the region.
When police checked the store’s accounts book, they discovered that Polar Pure had generated profits just shy of $270,000 in three years.
The two brothers were indicted for conspiring to and distributing iodine, while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it would be used to make meth.
Tony pleaded guilty and as part of the plea bargain he forfeited $200,000 of the money made from selling Polar Pure.
His brother Terry went to trial and was convicted, but here a legal issue arose that has brought the case to the attention of the country’s highest court.
The US government wants him to forfeit the remaining Polar Pure profits — nearly $70,000 — but Terry argues against this, saying that as a salaried employee of the “Brainerd Army Store” he did not benefit from the bumper sales.
“The defendant obtained nothing!” insisted Adam Unikowsky, Terry’s attorney, to the Supreme Court.
The government does not dispute this, but maintains that Terry is indebted for the dishonestly-earned profits as an accomplice of his brother.
“That position by the government has no textual basis at all,” said Unikowsky.
Will Terry have to pay up? The top court is set to rule on the case by the end of June.
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