ARRESTED AMERICAN FACES DRUG CHARGES








VORONEZH, MARCH 2, 2001. /From RIA Novosti Correspondent Vladimir Kolobov./  US citizen John Edward Tobin who was arrested in Voronezh on February 1 on suspicion of using and keeping drugs has been presented with new charges -- the repeated sale of drugs and the organization and maintenance of a drug den.


	Investigator Andrei Makarov reports that at the end of March he is planning to send Tobbin's case to court.  Tobbin may face a sentence of 10 years in prison.


	John Edward Tobbin, a 24-year old US citizen, and post graduate student of the Voronezh State University's political science department, was arrested for the first time in Voronezh on the night from January 24 to 25 at the entrance of one of the nightclubs. During the examination the police found him to be carrying 1.5 grams (or 15 doses) of marijuana. Tobbin was taken to the Leninsky district police department where he was interrogated in the presence of a lawyer and then set free after signing a pledge not to leave Voronezh. On the following day the policemen examined the American's flat where they discovered 2 more grams of marijuana.


	It turned out during the investigation that between 1994 and 1995 Tobbin underwent basic military training at Fort Jackson.  In 1996 he studied at the institute of military interpreters in Monterrey where he received the diploma of a Russian language specialists.  At the age of 20 Tobbin had graduated from the military reconnaissance school at Fort Huachuca, New Mexico.  The school trains specialists for US military intelligence work.  Upon graduating from the intelligence school John received a diploma qualifying him as an "interrogation specialist." At the same time, according to Pavel Bolshunov, head of the FSB public relations group for the Voronezh Region, that the state security had no claims to John Tobbin.