FBI agents served a search warrant at O.J. Simpson’s home in suburban Miami on Tuesday, seeking evidence relating to an Ecstasy drug ring. The drug ring under investigation is also suspected of money laundering and stealing satellite TV equipment.
Dressed in a white bathrobe and slippers, the Hall of Fame running back cooperated with Miami-Dade police and Florida Highway Patrol, allowing in FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents. After speaking with agents, Simpson left in his black sports utility vehicle.
Simpson was not arrested during the seven-hour search of his home, and his lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he did not expect his client to be charged. Galanter alluded to Simpson‘s past brushes with the law, The Miami Herald reports, as part of the reason for the search.
“I can assure you Mr. Simpson does not have enough money in his pocket or in his bank account to be involved in a money laundering ring,” he told reporters gathered outside Simpson‘s ranch-style home. “But we all know that this warrant was not about satellite dishes.”
Nine people were arrested in Miami and two in Chicago in connection with Operation X, a two-year investigation into the dealing of the club-drug Ecstasy. The probe also included an alleged money laundering ring and satellite-dish fraud.
Galanter said that Simpson‘s only connection to the case is that his name was mentioned in a phone conversation involving some members of the ring, which was taped by federal authorities.
The Miami Herald, however, reports that federal sources familiar with the case said Simpson was heard on several occasions talking with a suspected trafficker about buying Ecstasy, which can enhance sexual behavior, for himself and his “lady friends.”
Although law enforcement officers found traces of marijuana at Simpson‘s home, Galanter said no Ecstasy pills or other drugs were seized. FBI agents did remove two boxes of satellite television equipment.
Operation X used confidential informants, extensive surveillance and undercover agents posing as drug dealers to investigate a South Beach drug ring that imported Ecstasy from Holland and stole equipment used to make counterfeit cards that activate satellite TV receivers. The suspected ringleader remains at large in Brazil.
Simpson and his two children moved to Florida from California after a civil jury found him liable for the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million.
