An Inglewood beauty supply business owner was charged Friday in federal court on suspicion of possessing PCP with the intent to distribute the drug, authorities said.
Drug Enforcement Administration special agents arrested William Cless Hubbard Jr., 63, Thursday evening. He was ordered detained until trial at a hearing Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Agents found a one-gallon jug containing amber liquid, which tested “presumptively positive” for PCP, and prosecutors alleged in an affidavit. Prosecutors said they also found about four pounds of the drug.
PCP, also known as angel dust, is a hallucinogen originally developed as a pain killer, but which was outlawed in 1965.
During a related search of a business owned by Hubbard, agents found 55-gallon drums containing chemicals that can be used to make PCP, officials said.
Federal authorities opened their investigation into Hubbard in October 2019 when authorities learned of a shipment of bromobenzene from China to a beauty supply company that Hubbard owned, prosecutors said. Bromobenzene can be used in manufacturing PCP.
DEA agents surveilling Hubbard watched him distribute what authorities suspected to be chemicals to several locations, including a Long Beach building where agents discovered a PCP lab in May, court documents said.
A defense attorney for Hubbard could not immediately be reached Friday evening.
